A Hit Witch's Helping Hand
by LittleMsM
Summary: When Cassiopeia Black agreed to monitor the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, she never expected the madness she was roped into. A Dark Lord, returning to his old power. A brother, innocent in Askaban for twelve years. A lot of (crazy) Gryffindors (and Hogwarts' students in general) and - perhaps - true love.
1. How one small decision can change a live

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

* * *

Far after midnight, the Ministry of Magic in London was dark and quiet. The usual hissing of the green flames of the floo network, the chatter of visitors and employees and the noise of memos, flying through the air, had quieted down hours ago.

In a small office on Level 2 however, there was still light. There were ten desks and various cabinets crammed into the room. Piles of parchment were stacked on every available surface.

At the desk furthest away from the door, sat a witch, sorting through the piles of paper in front of her at record speed. Sometimes, she stopped, crossing out sections of text, adding new sentences, or signing her name at the bottom.

Ever since Sirius Black had broken out of Askaban, almost two years ago, her life had become a massive headache, including sleep deprivation, lengthy stays at St. Mungo's and far too much paperwork.

A knock at the door had her look up.

_Who in Merlin's name is still here?_ she thought confused. _It's almost two a.m.! No one's working at this hour. _Well, except for her, but that was a completely different matter, in her opinion.

Pulling out her wand, careful to keep it out of view, she called: "Enter!"

The door opened to reveal a dark skinned wizard, looking far too awake for this time of the day. The black haired witch sighed in relief, when she recognized him.

"Mr. Shacklebolt! What are you doing here, at this hour?" she asked him.

Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt eyed the small movement of her arm, as she stowed away her wand in its holster again. The feeling of the new red oak wand was still unfamiliar. Unfortunately, her first wand had been irreparably damaged three months ago, when she had been blasted through a wall.

"Jumpy, are we?" he questioned her.

"Occupational disease," the black haired witch answered with a shrug. "What can I do for you, this time? If you came to ask me about my brother again, the answer is no. No, I have neither seen nor heard from him. The answer is still the same as it was last week, the week before that - and the week before!"

The Auror laughed quietly: "Do not worry, Ms Black. I did not come to ask you about your brothers whereabouts. What gave you the idea that is what I wanted to talk about?"

Cassiopeia Black simply raised an eyebrow. Ever since Kingsley Shacklebolt had become responsible for the hunt for her brother, Sirius, he had been a pain in her backside, constantly questioning her about anything she might know about the escaped convict. Albeit, he was a lot nicer about it than the idiot Dawlish, who had been in charge before him.

She had not at all appreciated being woken up at four a.m.. Especially, since she had not managed to get to bed before two, thanks to the arrest of a dangerous criminal, that had gotten some of her colleagues hospitalized.

The questioning that followed had been lengthy, annoying and absolutely unproductive. Needless to say, her mood had not been great that day. Many Aurors had walked on eggshells around her for the following weeks, in fear of being snapped at - again.

What both, John Dawlish and Kingsley Shacklebolt, seemed to have forgotten was, that the last time she had spoken to her brother was, when she was four years old. He had then run away and stayed with James Potter, until he turned seventeen. His name had not been mentioned by their parents ever since. So how was it they thought, the first thing he did, after escaping, was to contact her? After almost twenty years of total silence?

Her parents had never gone to see their oldest son in Askaban and, after their death, Cassiopeia had not started visiting him, either. She had been focused on her career in Law Enforcement and visiting her convicted brother would not have been very conductive for that.

"Alright, maybe that was why I came here the last couple of times," Shacklebolt conceded. "But that's not why I am here today."

Cassiopeia looked at him inquiringly.

"And what is it you wanted to talk to me about, at two a.m.?" she asked. "Somehow, I get the feeling this isn't an invitation for lunch, or anything else harmless."

"You have heard about the Triwizard Tournament, at Hogwarts?" the Auror said, sitting down on an empty edge of her desk.

"Who hasn't? It's all this Skeeter woman writes about in the Daily Prophet. Horrible articles," the witch answered, shaking her head.

Those articles were disgusting and had nothing to do with reporting about the Triwizard Tournament. In her opinion, they were nothing but unproven gossip to satisfy the curiosity of dimwits and she had stopped reading after the second article was published. "It has taken the _Department of International Magical Cooperation_ and the _Department of Magical Sports and Games_ months to organize. I don't know what was worse, Bagman talking about the Quidditch World Cup Finale or the Triwizard Tournament. Good thing they are at Level 7 and not anywhere near us, or there might have been bodily harm."

Shacklebolt chuckled again: "I noticed that the people in your office are oversensitive at the moment. Just yesterday, I heard Jason Denbright tear stripes off Proudfoot, for some minor hiccup in a joint arrest."

Cassiopeia nodded, she had heard that particular ... conversation - through two closed office doors. Her sympathy for Auror Proudfoot was very limited, though. It should have been an easy arrests. Easy arrest did _not_ have hiccups, even minor ones.

"We are chronically overworked. What do you expect? After that chaos with those Death Eaters and the Dark Mark at the World Cup, sightings of supposed dark wizard have tripled. Most, who call are complete nutcases. The Magic Witch Watchers don't have enough personnel anymore, so they call us for the smallest things. We are a small department and, if we are stretched out so thinly, many of us have to take unnecessary risks, which leads to injuries, which leads to even less personnel. It's a vicious circle. Do you think I like doing paperwork at two a.m.?!"

"Perhaps I shouldn't ask you, if you have so much work anyway. Maybe - "

"Just spit it out," Cassiopeia interrupted him, trying in vain to suppress a yawn. He was here now anyway, so she might as well listen to what he wanted to say.

"The Third Task is in two days. We still need another witch or wizard from _DMLE_ to supervise, just in case anything happens. You know, if one of the creatures manages to escape or such."

Cassiopeia frowned: "Isn't that a job for _Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures_?"

"We've already got some people from there. No, the Minister will attend and probably some international guests as well. They want someone sitting in the crowd who is able to defend everyone around. You surely know what happened 1792. We don't want any dead people this time around. Can you imagine the headline? 'Dumbledore killed by rampaging sphinx - Minister of Magic watching'. That would be a disaster. Anyway, people always feel safer with someone from _DMLE_ around."

" - Aurors?" Cassiopeia suggested.

"We've got some Aurors there, as well, especially around the Minister, but Scrimgeour wants someone else... You know how he is, almost as bad as Mad-Eye. With Crouch missing, all of the pressure is on him - even though our office is technically not even involved," the Auror trailed off. "Scrimgeour already talked to your boss and he said it's ok - as long as you want to do it. Just, will you do it or not?"

The witch stroked her quill absentmindedly.

"Sit in the crowd, watch the Task, watch for potential dangers." That didn't sound too taxing and it would give her a reason to take a break from paperwork, if only for a day. In fact, for someone who worked in her job, it sounded quite relaxing. It might not be very comradely of her but, hey, was there anyone else in the office, doing paperwork at this hour? Especially an injured colleagues paperwork? Besides, if her boss said she could go... "Count me in."

"You'll do it?" the wizard asked, looking a bit astonished.

"That's what I just said, isn't it? Why couldn't you actually ask me that at a reasonable hour - or sent a memo?"

"I had to talk to some Ministry official in Australia, apparently, someone thought they had seen your brother," he shook his head. Clearly it had been false alarm - again. "Thanks to the time difference, I had to be here at this hour. When I saw light in here, I thought I ought to check. Scrimgeour would have talked to you tomorrow, but now I can tell him you will come."

"When and where do we meet?"

"Well, the others and I meet at ten thirty, for a debriefing, and floo in right after that. You don't need to be there for that, since you're not really involved in any of that. We'll meet you in the Entrance Hall, at half past eleven?"

"I'll be there," Cassiopeia told him and made a shooing motion with her hand. "And now get out. I have a meeting at nine and I would like to get some sleep before that _and_ the paperwork has to be finished until then."


	2. Final preparations for the Third Task

I was completely amazed at how many people read the short prologue, so I decided to publish the next chapter ahead of schedule.

* * *

The day of the Third Task found an exhausted Cassiopeia Black, waiting in the Entrance Hall for the arrival of the other Ministry employees. Paperwork had kept her up half of the night, again, and she was currently functioning solely on Pepper Up Potion. Maybe she should take the day off tomorrow and simply sleep for twenty-four hours.

The witch stood next to the hour glasses and watched the students passing by. Thinking back to her time as a student at Hogwarts, she could hardly believe it had already been five years, since she last set a foot into the castle.

It was almost time for lunch, so there where many students coming through the Entrance Hall and heading for the Great Hall. Some of them noticed the witch, leaning against the wall, and gave her strange looks, probably wondering what she was doing there. Whilst still at Hogwarts, she might have done the same. Who in their right mind wore a black traveling cloak in summer?

She had been running a bit late, when she had come to Hogsmeade earlier. Since she hated using the floo connection, apparating to Hogsmeade was the only way to get to the castle and the walk took a good couple of minutes. In order to arrive on time, she did not have the chance to go back home and change out of her work uniform. The silver-grey robes and the sturdy black boots were easily recognizable and she did not want to scare the spectators. The shiny _DMLE _badge on her traveling cloak should make her official enough, without causing unnecessary fear. After all, she or her colleagues usually only showed up in very dangerous situations.

"Ms Black! How nice to see you, again."

A squeaky voice jostled her out of her thoughts. Looking down, she found a beaming Professor Flitwick in front of her.

"Good morning, Professor Flitwick," she greeted politely. Charms had been one of her favorite subjects, she had even gotten an O for her N.E.W.T.s. Well, technically she had gotten seven Os and two Es on her N.E.W.T.s in total, so Charms wasn't that special - but she had liked it anyway.

"Are you here to watch the Third Task?" the tiny being asked her. "I am sure it will be very interesting. If you consider how good Harry Potter has been until now, despite his disadvantages, I am sure he will give us quite the show. And, of course, you can't neglect the other Champions, very talented, all three of them. I can't wait to see who will be the winner, tonight."

The witch smiled indulgently at the part-goblin. Whenever he was particularly excited, his voice became so high pitched, it gave her a headache. Still, she somehow like him. His lessons had never been boring and the students could always question him on any charm they had read about or seen.

"I'm sure the Task will be exciting but, unfortunately, I am not here for watching it, at least not solely. I'm here on Ministry business."

"Ministry business? Don't you work for the _Department of Magical Law Enforcement_? I thought the Tournament was the _Department of International Magical Cooperation_ and the _Department of Magical Sports and Games'_ responsibility."

"I do indeed work for the _DMLE_. It's just an additional security measure, you know, with the Minister around. Nothing to worry about. I am actually looking forward to a day without anything dangerous happening to me," Cassiopeia told her former Professor with a smile. "Ah, if you'd excuse me. The rest of the team has arrived."

Together with Kingsley Shacklebolt and the Head of the Auror Office Rufus Scrimgeour, Nymphadora Tonks, her cousin Andromeda's daughter, John Dawlish and two wizards she didn't know had arrived. They stuck out of the crowd, especially Tonks hair - since when did she favor purple? - was easily spotted among the students. Cassiopeia went over to them.

"Mr. Scrimgeour, Mr. Shacklebolt," she greeted. Dawlish only got a cold nod, she was still cross with him. "_Nymphadora_, it's been a while."

"_Don't_ call me Nymphadora," the witch growled, her purple hair turning dark red. Cassiopeia deliberately ignored her comment and introduced herself to the other two wizards.

Annoying Andromeda's daughter with her name had been a favorite pastime of hers during their days at Hogwarts. The reactions of the Metamorphmagus had been very entertaining.

"The Minister won't arrive until dinner, so we still have time. Professor Dumbledore was so kind to invite us for lunch," Kingsley Shacklebolt told her. "We will have a shrot look at the maze after that, to check security and prepare everything for the Minister's arrival."

"Very well."

Sitting at the High Table, with all of the Professors and the Headmasters of the other schools, instead of her old House Table felt strange. It gave Cassiopeia a completely different view of the Great Hall.

The Professors used the opportunity to hear about the lives of their former students. Somewhere to her right side, Nymphadora was in a deep conversation with the former Head of her House, Professor Sprout. Kingsley Shacklebolt and Rufus Scrimgeour were talking to Professor McGonagall and the two wizards from _Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures _were talkingto Hagrid. Cassiopeia sighed. She was not to keen on talking to her former Head of House. Fortunately, he didn't seem to be either. A familiar _clonk_ had her look up.

"Alastor!" she exclaimed, surprised. Of course, she had known that Dumbledore had convinced him to teach Defense against the Dark Arts this year, but that, in her mind, somehow hadn't equaled with meeting the former Auror again. Nymphadora had noticed the arrival of her former mentor, as well, and got up to greet him. In her excitement, she managed to knock over Professor Sprouts drink. Thanks to her quick reflexes - a must have in her job - and somewhat expecting an accident caused by her cousin, Cassiopeia managed to catch it before it could spill.

"I'm so sorry," Nymphadora apologized, looking ashamed.

"Not like we weren't expecting it, Ms Tonks," Professor Sprout said with a fond smile. In her school days, the now Auror had had more than one unfortunate mishap. Cassiopeia was just happy, that she had been one year above the accident prone witch.

Alastor Moody was watching the Metamorphmagus with his good eye, while his magical eye was looking through his head. Somehow, Cassiopeia got the feeling, it was trained on her but she couldn't for the life of her figure out, why the Ex-Auror would be suspicious of her. They hadn't seen each other in a year and she couldn't remember doing anything reckless - well, too reckless anyway but that was her job.

Lunch went on with a lot of talking and, fortunately, no more accidents. They had all politely greeted Professor Dumbledore, Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff. Cassiopeia's eyes narrowed, when she saw the former Death Eater. Suddenly, Dumbledore's decision to hire Moody made a lot more sense. Having the Dark Lord's Ex-Followers around Harry Potter might be a danger to the boy's life. Who would be a better protection than the man, that brought dozens of dark wizards into Askaban?

When Cassiopeia inspected the House Tables again, she noticed the parents of the Champions sitting with them. Curious, as to who was here for Harry Potter, she checked Gryffindor table. She had only heard rumors of him being Muggle raised from her cousin Narcissa and couldn't help being a bit nosy. Looking for adults at the table she was confused, when she was met with the sight of the Weasley matriarch and ... was that Bill Weasley? The witch blinked and looked again. He sure had grown out his hair, it was almost as long as hers - and her hair reached down to her waist.

"Why is Mrs. Weasley here?" she questioned Professor McGonagall, who sat two seats to her left.

"Well, the Weasleys are Harry's family. Or, as close to family as he can get. The Muggle relatives he is staying with are not too fond of magic," the Head of Gryffindor explained.

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow in question, waiting for more information.

"Ron, the youngest of the Weasley sons, is Harry's best friend, along with Ms Hermione Granger, who is quite the brightest student we have had at Hogwarts in some time. Anyway, as soon as Molly Weasley found out about Harry's family, she practically adopted him into hers," Professor McGonagall continued explaining.

Cassiopeia made a noncommittal sound still watching the Weasleys. She had only seen Mrs. Weasley once, during a Quidditch game. She had been a bit preoccupied with the Quaffle and scoring goals, to get a good look, but the woman was quite recognizable.

"I was quite surprised to see Bill coming as well. You remember Bill Weasley? He was Head Boy in your sixth year?" McGonagall said.

Cassiopeia nodded: "I remember, I was a Prefect back then. I can recall quite vividly the Prefects Meeting in the Hogwarts Express that year. Some idiot had used dung bombs in the corridor..."

"Oh yes. I remember giving out a lot of detentions for that. Anyway, as I was saying, I am surprised to see him here. He actually works for Gringotts, as a Curse Breaker in Egypt."

"Curse Breaker? Perhaps I should have him have a look at my parents house. I haven't set a foot in there since my mother died because of all of the cursed objects in there...," Cassiopeia mused.

The Deputy Headmistress looked at her questioningly: "I would expect you know far more about dark spells and curses than anyone else."

"On how to use them or deflect them, sure, but lifting them has - unfortunately - not been on my curriculum. Especially if they are a couple of centuries old. Many of them get stronger as the time passes. I risk my life every day at work, there is no need to do so at home as well. Besides, I have my own flat, so there is no need to use the house."

Once they had finished eating, Rufus Scrimgeour shooed them all outside, to check security before the Minister's arrival.

When Cassiopeia saw what they had done to the Quidditch pitch, she scowled.

"Couldn't they have picked a different spot to grow the maze?" she grumbled. "There is more than enough space on the grounds. Why the Quidditch pitch?"

"It's already got seats?" Kingsley Shacklebolt answered hesitantly.

"Seats? Seats are transfigured within one day - even as many as they need here. That can't be the reason. No Tournament should prevent the students from playing Quidditch!"

"Perhaps Dumbledore wants to make sure all of the Hogwarts students support their Champion, or Champions, in this case. Quidditch is just a great way to intensify house rivalries," the wizard answered.

Scrimgeour called them to the entrance of the maze: "Everyone here? Good. Mad-Eye is currently bringing the Cup into the maze. He will also support us outside, once the Task begun. Mr. Shacklebolt and, Ms Black, if you would be so kind to help us out? One of the Aurors got the dragon pox, so he can't be here today. We could use your help in preparing for the Minister's arrival."

The witch shrugged: "I don't have anything to do, right now. Fire away."

"Good, you two check the Minister's Box. We need to be sure it is safe. The rest of you, I want to go around the maze, to make sure the spells on the outer part of the hedge are in working order."

"Let's go then," Kingsley Shacklebolt said to Cassiopeia and the two of them made their way up to the Box.

It took them over an hour to make sure the Box was free of any curses, cursed objects or other potential dangers. This was not part of what Cassiopeia did on her job, but growing up in the Black family had left her with a good sense for, if something was dangerous. Being almost strangled by old robes simply for opening a closet made one very careful, when dealing with even the most mundane objects.

Cassiopeia had to admit, the view from the Box, usually used by the Professors during Quidditch games, was quite spectacular. It was the first time she truly got a feeling of how big the maze was.

"Do they really expect the Champions to find their way into the middle?" she wondered out loud. One could just hope they all had an excellent sense of orientation.

When they came back down on the lawn in front of the maze, a small group of witches and wizards was already waiting for them.

"Box is clear," Shacklebolt told his boss.

"Excellent. The Minister is due to arrive in twenty minutes and I've sent Dawlish to pick him and the other Aurors up. So we're clear on that part, as well. That only leaves us with - oh no. Why _now_?" the Head of the Auror Office pinched the bridge of his nose. "Couldn't he have arrived when we are finished?"

Cassiopeia followed his line of sight and saw, what could only be identified as overgrown wasp. Ludo Bagman had obviously chosen his old Quidditch uniform for today. If she had to guess, Cassiopeia would say it was two sizes too small - at least.

"Mr. Bagman, how nice of you to join us," Scrimgeour greeted, in a voice that indicated anything but pleasure. Bagman completely missed the undertone and happily started babbling about the Tournament.

"Mr. Scrimgeour? The only thing I am required to do is still, sitting in the crowd and keep my eyes open, right?" Cassiopeia asked quickly, unwilling to listen to Bagman's chatter longer than necessary.

"Yes. I want someone to keep an eye on the crowd. Just in case. We'll handle the Minister, the Headmasters and the safety of the Champions. Should we need an extra wand, we'll call you."

"Good. Do you mind if I go have a look around, to find myself a nice spot?"

"Mind? No," the Head of the Auror Office answered. Then he added more quietly: "But I do so envy you, for being able to walk away. My office had nothing to do with the Tournament, but without Crouch... His assistant is simply too young for that kind of responsibility and I, I have to do everything!"

"Have fun with Bagman," Cassiopeia told him with s smirk.

Shooting her a dirty look and grumbling to himself, Scrimgeour went back to Bagman, to discuss last minute details. It was still some hours before the beginning of the Third Task.

Cassiopeia chose to spent the time left surveying her surroundings for a bit, looking for vantage points. She needed a spot that offered an excellent view of her surroundings - just in case some idiot really decided to cause trouble.


	3. Not as quiet as expected

Thanks for all of the lovely reviews!

* * *

After dinner, everybody was streaming outside, to get a good seat. The sky was already getting darker, Cassiopeia noticed, as she surveyed the crowd. The red hair of the Weasley family was easy to spot and she decided to sit near Harry Potter's friends and family. They had chosen seats quite close to a spot she had deemed a good vantage point and the conversation with Professor McGonagall had intrigued her. She wanted to know more and what was a better place to start, than his friends?

_Excellent_, she thought happily, as she sat down next to Bill quietly. None of the redheads noticed her arrival.

Some more wizards, who appeared to be Potter's age came up to them and studied her curiously, before sitting down.

"I didn't know your family was coming, Ron," the boy to her right said.

"I didn't either," 'Ron' answered. "Neville, Seamus, Dean, my mother and my eldest brother Bill."

"And who is the young lady?" another one of the three boys asked. 'Ron' leaned forward and gave Cassiopeia a confused look.

"Ehm...," he said.

Bill took a look to his right and furrowed his eyebrows: "Cassiopeia?"

"The one and - by now - only," she answered with a chuckle. The great-aunt she was named after, had died two years ago.

"What are you doing here?"

"Working. But, perhaps, you should introduce me first? I think those children are still waiting for an answer."

Bill flushed a little. Cassiopeia had always found the fact, that he and his siblings turned red so easily quite amusing. Especially, since the coloring didn't go with their hair at all.

"Right, everybody, this is Cassiopeia Black, Slytherin Head Girl, Chaser and one year below me."

The Gryffindors around her eyed her suspiciously.

"Wonderful, William. Giving away all of my finer qualities at once. What are they supposed to think of me now?"

The red head gave her a lopsided smile: "It's better to warn them. Your lot can be quite sneaky."

"An important ability to have in my job," Cassiopeia pouted.

"Speaking about job. You said you're here for work. Don't you work for _DMLE_?"

The beginning of the Third Task interrupted their conversation for a while. Once the Champions had disappeared into the maze, the chatter in the crowd had picked up. There wasn't much to do, except to stare at a green hedge until someone won. You couldn't really see what was happening inside the maze. Cassiopeia wasn't sure why someone would think this could be an interesting Task for the spectators.

"Well?" Bill asked her again, trying to pick up their conversation.

"I do work for _DMLE._ Though, how do you know about that?"

"Dad also works on Level 2, albeit on the other side of the corridor. But why would someone from _DMLE_ be here? Should I be concerned?" he asked, eying his little sister next to their mother worriedly.

"There are a couple of Aurors here. Mostly for the Minister. I'm just additional security, thanks to a paranoid Scrimgeour. Nothing will happen, and if it does, we can handle it. It's our job, after all," Cassiopeia answered with a shrug. She was still not sure if there truly was any reason for her to be here except for Scrimgeour's growing paranoia. If he continued like that, he would be worse than Alastor Moody, soon. But, considering the events of the last months, some extra security probably couldn't hurt.

"You work at the _DMLE_?" a brown haired witch next to 'Ron' asked. "I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

"Nice to meet you. There was a famous potioneer with that name, Hector Dagworth-Granger. Are you related to him?"

"I don't think so, I'm Muggle-born," the young witch answered.

Cassiopeia remembered Professor McGonagall talking about Hermione Granger as the brightest student they had. _Must be quite the bookworm, if she's Muggle-born_, she thought.

"Well then, Ms Granger, yes, I do work for _DMLE_."

"Do you have anything to do with house-elf welfare?"

"Hermione, not again," Ron groaned. "Can't you leave people alone with your _SPEW_"?

"House-elf welfare? I don't think there is such a thing as house-elf welfare," Cassiopeia answered, slowly. "If there was, it would probably belong to _Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures_. And what in Merlin's name is _SPEW_?"

"_Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare_," Hermione explained. "I think, it is unacceptable to have house-elves work like slaves for us, so I founded _SPEW_. They need to have rights. They need a day of and payment..."

"Payment?! For a house-elf? Please don't _ever_ suggest that to them. They would be deadly insulted. They don't want to be paid. They like working for their masters."

Ron interrupted her: "See, Hermione! I've been telling you that the whole time."

Hermione hmpfed.

"If you work for _DMLE_, are you an Auror?" Ron questioned Cassiopeia eagerly. His expression clearly told her he dreamed of being one, after he finished school.

"Auror? No, thanks. Far too boring," she answered. "No risk, no fun."

Bill snorted next to her.

"You shut up, William. You're a Curse Breaker, you should be careful with what you say."

The redheaded twins next to Mrs. Weasley snickered. Cassiopeia shut them up with a glare that would have made Severus Snape proud.

"I was just going to mention that that is decidedly Gryffindor of you. Besides, how do you know I'm a Curse Breaker?" Bill echoed her former question.

Completely ignoring him, the witch went on with her explanation: "I am a Hit Witch."

"Really? A Hit Witch?" one of the Gryffindors to her right asked. "I've heard it's really hard to be accepted. You need to be really good for your N.E.W.T.s and have to pass some tests. And once you're in, you even get your own bed at St. Mungo's!"

"Unfortunately, that is true. I never understood why people think that fact is so amazing. Most of us spent as much time inside St. Mungo's as outside," Cassiopeia answered with a shrug. "Well, arresting dangerous criminals, especially dark witches and wizards, is risky. We take over, if the Magic Witch Watchers or Aurors think it's too dangerous."

"But how many O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s do you need?"

Cassiopeia shrugged: " Eleven O.W.L.s and nine N.E.W.T.s, seven of them with an O were enough. Being quite a decent flyer also helped."

"Nine N.E.W.T.s ?" Bill asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I did drop Divination and History after the O.W.L.s. They were far to useless to waste time on. I never took Muggle Studies, anyway. I mean, could you imagine? Me in Muggle Studies? My ancestors would roll in their graves. Pity they didn't offer Alchemy in our year."

The conversation died for a few minutes.

"Bill said your name was Black," Hermione said suddenly. "Are you related to Sirius Black?"

"Obviously. There is only one pure-blood family with the name Black. Sirius is my eldest brother."

"Your eldest brother? So you have more?" the young Weasley girl asked curiously. "I didn't know Sirius Black had any siblings. The press never wrote anything about that."

"Ginny!" Bill chastised her. They may not have been friends at Hogwarts, but Cassiopeia had liked Charlie well enough. First they had only talked about Quidditch, then also about other things. They had developed a strange kind of friendship during the witch's sixth year at Hogwarts. Charlie on the other hand had often spoken to his older brother about the Black girl. That was why Bill knew her other brother was a sore subject, or well, any of her brothers.

Cassiopeia waved him off. The girl couldn't have known and by now, almost fifteen years had passed.

"I had another brother," she explained quietly. "Regulus. He died during the Dark Lords reign. Probably killed by a Death Eater. They never did find his body, so we do not know for sure."

"I'm sorry," Ginny said, looking down at her lap.

"It was a long time ago. But, on to happier subjects. You're all friends with Harry? Then you can surely explain to me what I missed during the first two Tasks. I read the articles in the Daily Prophet but somehow, I am not quite satisfied with the reporting."

The children launched into vivid descriptions of the Tasks. Cassiopeia listened to them, while surveying their surroundings. Nothing had changed. The crowd was still chattering animatedly and there were no emergency sparks above the maze.

Comforted, she leaned back in her chair and marveled at how easy it seemed to get those kids to trust her - at least a bit. Shouldn't the fact that Sirius was her brother scare them off?

Bill was the only one that eyed her with a look that definitely said _What are you up to?_ Cassiopeia gave him her most innocent smile and he shook his head, laughing quietly.

After Rita Skeeters second article about the tournament, Cassiopeia had stopped reading them altogether, so a lot of the information she got from the Gryffindors, was news to her. She shook her head as to the Second Task. The Lake wasn't a place for children to play in. Since the windows of the Slytherin common room looked out directly into the Lake, she knew about a couple of creatures that lived down there and many of them should not be trifled with. Especially the merpeople.

Why in Merlin's name would someone revive the tradition of the Triwizard Tournament anyway? Hadn't enough students died?

When Ron Weasley mentioned Mr. Potter and Mr. Krum meeting Barty Crouch Sr., Cassiopeia looked at him surprised. She had not heard about him showing up at Hogwarts, after he had called in sick. Which was, now that she thought about it, quite strange. She had not pegged him for someone to stay at home because of an illness.

"And Mr. Potter was sure it was Barty Crouch Sr. they met?" she asked the boy.

"Yes of course. We met him at the World Cup Finale. Harry knows Crouch when he sees him," Ron insisted and Hermione nodded beside him.

"Curious. Why would he show up here, if he's ill? He could have simply sent an owl, if it was important," Cassiopeia wondered, as a murmur went through the crowd. Red sparks had appeared over the maze.

"It looks like one of our Champions got injured!" Ludo Bagman's magnified voice said. Everybody watched tensely, as two wizard flew over the maze to rescue the injured Champion.

A few minutes later they landed again, a girl with silver-blond hair between them. Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons Champion.

A witch in a lime green robe, identifying her as a Healer, hurried over to the girl and started checking her. No sooner than she had started, another murmur went through the crowd, as red sparks rose for the second time.

"What in Merlin's name is going on in there?" Ginny questioned in a small voice. "Do you think Harry is hurt?"

Her worries were blown away - at least for now - when the wizards rescued Viktor Krum. He appeared to be unconscious, just like Ms Delacour. What worried Cassiopeia was, that none of the seemed to be injured. The Healer woke both of her patients with a simple spell.

When Scrimgeour, Shacklebolt and Dawlish joined the Healer in her examination, Hermione asked: "What is going on down there? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, dear," Mrs. Weasley answered. "But I'm sure the Healer will manage to sort them out."

Cassiopeia shook her head slowly. The way the Aurors where talking to Mr. Krum didn't sit well with her: "I don't like this. Something is not right here."

Just as she said this, she caught Shacklebolt's eye and he nodded for her to come down to them. Her eyes narrowed worriedly. Why would they need her help? Healing was not her strong suit. The Auror gestured with his hands. It was a sign she knew well.

"If you'd excuse me for a moment," she told the Weasleys and the rest of Harry Potter's friends. "It seems my expertise is needed down there."

Cassiopeia stripped off her traveling cloak, since it would only hinder her mobility and hurried down the stairs and onto the pitch, well aware of the hundreds of eyes, that followed her. If someone in a silver-grey robe with a wand drawn was seen somewhere, it was never a good sign.

"What's wrong?" she asked, once she reached the formerly knocked out Champions.

"What 'appened to my student?" Madame Maxime asked in her heavy accent, looking concerned.

"Something I would like to know as well," Professor Karkaroff added.

"Please, let the Healer do her job. Why don't you all wait over there?" Dawlish suggested, pointing at a spot to his right and proceeding immediately to leading them there.

Once they were out of earshot the Healer started to explain: "They were stunned, both of them. It was not difficult to wake them up. None of them are injured otherwise."

"Mr. Krum, Ms Black is another valued employee of the _Department of Magical Law Enforcement_. Would you please tell her what you just told us?" Scrimgeour asked the famous Seeker.

"I don't remember much. I heard a voice. Some spell, I could not understand. Then I velt light, as if I was flying and then I vas - I - " Krum's voice broke off. He looked around, helplessly, as if he didn't know how to explain.

"He needs to rest," the Healer insisted. "You can question him later!"

Cassiopeia looked at Scrimgeour for a moment inquiring as how he wanted to proceed.

"Can you confirm it?" he asked her. The witch looked at the Healer: "It will only take a few moments."

To Viktor Krum she said: "Is it alright for you if I look at your memories? I will not stay longer than necessary and I promise to only look at what happened in the maze. Once it's done, you won't have to talk to any of us anymore. I will have all of the information necessary."

"Legilimency?" the Champion asked her. It was not a common ability to have, especially for someone so young. Even among the _Hit Wizards_, there were few with the ability. The ones, that showed talent, were trained specially and focused mainly on interrogations. Cassiopeia was the only one, that worked in the field as well.

When the witch confirmed Krum's suspicion, he looked at her for a moment, before nodding.

"Very well."

Cassiopeia tried to be as gentle as possible, when entering the young man's mind. She knew it could be uncomfortable to have a complete stranger in your head, looking at your memories.

_"Think of the maze, show me what happened"_ she told him. _"Nothing else, just the maze."_

The grey fog in front of her cleared and the hedges of the maze took shape. She could hear a voice whispering and suddenly, the focus of the memory became slightly off. Cassiopeia knew what was happening. She'd recognize that feeling anywhere. During her training, she had been placed under the same curse numerous times, until she could shake it off without any effort. _Imperius_.

_"Thank you!"_ she said to Krum, before leaving his mind-scape. Immediately the Healer bustled off with her patients.

"And?" Shacklebolt asked her. Cassiopeia looked up at the Aurors and nodded.

"There is no mistaking it. It's the Imperius."

"What?"

"But how - "

"Who would - "

The Aurors around her started speaking all at once. Cassiopeia held up a hand to quiet them down.

"I have no idea who, but for the how... there are only two possibilities. Either it was someone from the outside of the maze or someone from the inside. Seeing as only the Champions are inside and I doubt one of those two can successfully cast an Unforgivable - "

"But we would have seen if someone was sneaking around the maze," Dawlish interjected. Cassiopeia looked at him and his brows furrowed: "You can't honestly think it was one of us!"

A sudden spark of green from a platform behind them caught everybody's interest.

"Looks like we have a winner!" Bagman shouted happily.

"Finally," Scrimgeour sighed. "He should be here any second now. The Cup is a Portkey."

The minutes trickled by but nothing happened. Cassiopeia stared impatiently at the platform.

"I didn't think a Portkey took that long," Nymphadora wondered. She had joined the small group of Ministry officials while Cassiopeia was looking at Krum's memories.

"They don't," Shacklebolt stated, looking worriedly over to Dumbledore. The old wizard was staring at the green light, confused.

"Perhaps there was a malfunction?" Bagman wondered loudly, as the crowd grew restless.

"Malfunction? If Mad-Eye placed the Cup?" Nymphadora asked.

Cassiopeia had to agree with her. If Mad-Eye had placed the Cup, there was no chance it had malfunctioned. The old wizard knew how to create a Portkey and was far to thorough to mess it up.

"Where is Mad-Eye? Perhaps he has an idea?" she questioned the others.

"I am here, Ms Black," came the answer from behind her. "What is this green light all about?"

"It's supposed to alert us to the imminent arrival of the winner. Dawlish placed the spell on the middle of the maze yesterday. As soon as one of the Champions reaches the middle, the light over there turns green," Scrimgeour explained.

"First time I hear about that," Moody grumbled, his magical eye rotating wildly in his head.

"It was a spontaneous decision, so no one would miss the arrival of the winner."

"Obviously it doesn't work correct," the Ex-Auror said.

Whilst Mad-Eye and Dawlish were busy staring at each other, Cassiopeia silently planned out their next action. This was far more her area of expertise than that of the Aurors. Unknown opponent, possibly extremely dangerous, difficult terrain. She could work with that. Her eyes scanning the witches and wizards at her disposal, she decided on a course of action.

"Shacklebolt, Tonks, Dawlish, Moody! Pick someone from the other Aurors and patrol along the outsides of the maze in teams of two. Check for anything unusual. If you find something sent sparks. Scrimgeour, you wait here. As soon as you see sparks you go help investigate," she ordered. The Head of the Auror Office accepted her order with a nod. He might have the advantage of years of fieldwork on her, but she had been trained specially for situations like this.

"What about you?" Shacklebolt asked.

"I check from above. On a broom, I am the most vulnerable target and I am by far the best flyer amongst us. Besides, I am used to dueling on a broom. If no one was inside that damned maze, I would simply burn it down to check but since that is not possible - "

"The maze has been made fireproof anyway," Dawlish interjected.

Cassiopeia looked at him and grinned: "Never heard of Fienfyre?"

Maybe it was not the easiest spell to control - and a quite dark one as well - but as a Black, she had a and for such curses.

Looking over to Dumbledore, she decided that, as Headmaster, he was probably entitled to be informed about her actions.

"I'll be talking to Professor Dumbledore for a minute and join you then. Mr. Scrimgeour, you're responsible for this lot, until I'm back."

Cassiopeia went over to the three Headmasters. By now, the families of the two rescued Champions had joined them.

" 'ow ees our daughter?" a blond witch - obviously Fleur Delacour's mother - asked her. "Was she eenjured?"

"I am afraid, I am no Healer, so I cannot answer your question. I only talked to Mr. Krum for a minute. He seemed to be shaken but otherwise unharmed. For more information you will have to ask the Healer. Professor Dumbledore, can we talk for a minute?"

The Headmaster of Hogwarts nodded and led her away from the fretting parents.

"What is it?" he asked her. "You seem concerned and, with how the Aurors are spreading around the maze, I suspect something happened?"

"Indeed. Normally, I would not give out this information at this time but I believe you need to know. Mr. Krum was put under the Imperius Curse, while in the maze."

"But how is that possible? There were people patrolling all the time. No one could have gotten close without notice."

"I know. I have the Aurors I trust - or at least think I can trust," she added, thinking of Dawlish whom she still had not forgiven. "Anyway, they are currently checking the outside. I will use a broom and check the maze from above. If I find one of the Champions, I will remove him from the maze immediately. I don't care about the Task, I want those children safe."

"Completely agreeable," Dumbledore nodded. "I would not want to risk their lives. Especially when someone seems to be after the Champions and not afraid of using the Unforgivables."

"Headmaster."

They were interrupted by a voice Cassiopeia would recognize everywhere.

"Professor Snape," she greeted her former Head of House coldly.

"Ms Black. If you'd excuse us, I have to talk to the Headmaster immediately."

"If it isn't a matter of life and death, get in line. I am trying to find two Champions, preferably before they get cursed."

The Professors exchanged a look.

"Severus, is it the - " Dumbledore asked and the Potion Master nodded. "Show me."

"Now?" Snape asked with a side glance to Cassiopeia. She could clearly hear the unspoken _In front of her?_

"Yes, Severus."

The Professor carefully rolled up the sleeve of his left arm. On his forearm the Dark Mark stood jet black against the pale skin.

"It started burning not a minute ago," Snape explained. Cassiopeia could only stare at the Mark.

"That is not possible. The Mark faded when he was defeated," she said soundlessly. She had seen the Mark on Lucius Malfoy's arm, a couple of years ago. It had looked like nothing more than a faint red tattoo.

"So he is back then," Dumbledore stated with a sigh. For a moment, he truly looked his age. Worry was shining in his blue eyes.

"Ms Black, if you would be so kind and start searching for Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter immediately. Especially for Mr. Potter, if you please."

Cassiopeia nodded, still not quite believing what she had just see. Forcefully shaking herself out of her stupor, she pulled her broom out of a magically enlarged pocket of her robes. Swiftly kicking off the ground, she rose into the air. Once the wind blew into her face, she noticed she had forgotten to tie her hair back. The long black strands where fluttering behind her.

_Well, too late to tie it back now anyway_, she thought, slightly annoyed at her forgetfulness.

Looking down, she saw the seemingly endless green of the maze beneath her. Did they really expect the Champions to find their way into the middle? That thing was huge. It could take days for someone to finally find the right path. What were the spectators expected to do during that time? Stare at the hedge?!

Cassiopeia took a few seconds to look at the landscape around her. The familiarity calmed her and she needed a clear mind for the task at hand. Up here, she was an easy target and she couldn't rely on the Aurors on the ground to spot every possible danger. She needed to strategically search the maze, while keeping an eye open for any attacker, so she pulled out her wand with one hand and stirred the broom with the other.

Deciding the best place to start her search was probably the middle - after all the spell had indicated someone had arrived there - she flew off. It was getting darker by the minute, within half an hour there would not be enough light left to see the ground and searching with _Lumos_ was a pain.

She had done that, once, after a colleague got knocked off his broom by a spell. Unfortunately, the spell had also cancelled the tracking charm, placed on everyone, before they went out. It had been a hilly region and moving on a broom had been easier than walking, but it had taken them two hours to locate the injured wizard in the dark.

Even on a broom, it took her a couple of minutes to reach her aim. Lowering her broom, she surveyed the area. Nobody was there. Reaching the pillar the Cup was supposed to stand on, she noticed with confusion that it was gone. Raising her wand, she checked the pillar for any residue magic. The soft blue glow confirmed that a Portkey had left this place, not too long ago. But where had it brought the Champion, if not back to the entrance?

After she found no indication, as to which Champion had reached the Cup first, she rose into the air again, determined to find at least the other Champion. Spiraling out from the middle, she checked the whole maze. Apart from a couple of creatures, that were at least classified as XXXX, she didn't see anyone. Had she missed them somehow? She definitely needed some more light up here. No sparks had appeared around the edges of the maze, while she had been up in the air, so the others probably didn't find anything as well. They were of better use searching for the missing Champions manually.

_Sparks! Why didn't I think of that before?_

Magically amplifying her voice, she called out: "Would any of the Champions still in the maze please sent out green sparks, so we can confirm your location and continued well-being?"

When no sparks flew up, she repeated her request. Still not finding any sign of the Champions, she returned to the entrance. They needed more people to search the entire maze. Maybe they would have to tear it down piece by piece to speed up the search.

As soon as she landed, Scrimgeour was next to her: "Have you found anything?"

"The Cup is gone, but there is no sign of the Champions."

The Head of the Auror Office cursed colorfully.

Cassiopeia had to smile at some of his inventions, but said: "Anyway, I say we tear down the maze and have the guys from _Regulation and Control _take care of the creatures, maybe Hagrid can help them. It's too dark to check from above. Have you found any sign of the one, that cast the Imperius?"

"None. I am honestly beginning to suspect it was one of our own and that is not a pleasant thought. Still, I don't believe..."

Before Cassiopeia could find out what the Auror didn't believe, a flash of light and a thud announced the arrival of a Portkey. The crowd erupted into a cheer.

Turning around she saw the bodies of two boys on the ground. Dumbledore was already making his way over to them and Cassiopeia hurried to catch up. Minister Fudge was coming down the stairs of the box he had sat in.

The Headmaster and the Hit Witch reached the Hogwarts students at the same time. The younger of the boys, Harry Potter, Cassiopeia concluded, reached out to Dumbledore and said something about seeing Voldemort return.

He was truly back. The man that was responsible for the death of one of her brothers and the imprisonment of the other was back. The wizard, that had had her father erect the tightest and most powerful ward in Great Britain - apart from Hogwarts - around their house, the wizard, that had even her proud mother hide in fear after Regulus' death, was back.

"Cedric Diggory is dead." The words seemed to slowly pierce her mind. She didn't hear what else was said around her, but that phrase was repeated so often, it finally registered.

She looked at the boy in Hufflepuff colors, finally noticing the blank stare of his eyes. Somehow, seeing the dead body returned her into work mode.

There was no immediate danger around, Scrimgeour was looking at the body, that left the witness.

Searching for Harry, Cassiopeia saw him disappearing into the castle with Mad-Eye. Furrowing her brow, she made to follow them and was quickly joined by the Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.

"Why is Mad-Eye leading Potter away? He knows witnesses are required to stay until they have been questioned," she asked Dumbledore.

"I am not sure what is going on. All I know is, that Alastor would never remove Mr. Potter from my side when Voldemort just returned."

"You think that's not Mad-Eye?" the witch concluded.

Reflecting on the events of the last few hours, Cassiopeia could see several instances, where Mad-Eye had not reacted like she had expected him to. He had not chastised her for calling him Alastor instead of Mad-Eye, he had called her Ms Black and not 'Tiny', as to refer to her petite statue. The Mad-Eye she knew would never have had a silent staring duel with Dawlish. The younger Auror would have received a verbal lashing, that would have had their ears ring for days.

"Son of Morgana!" she cursed. "I obviously need a vacation, if I can't even recognize an imposter right under my nose."

"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Ms Black. We lived with him in this castle for almost a year and didn't notice anything," Professor McGonagall told her.

The four hurried down the corridors, the Hit Witch trailing a bit behind the Professors, since she didn't know where Mad-Eye's - _the imposter's _\- quarters where.


	4. Far too many revelations

"... mad!" They could hear the voice of a boy trough a closed door.

"Mad, ... I? ... will see..." The words were muffled by the door, so they could only hear pieces of the conversation.

Cassiopeia went to open the door first. She was used to placing herself in harm's way, but Dumbledore gently pushed her aside and pulled the door open himself. Not a moment later she heard him yell: "_Stupefy!_"

Her wand carefully raised in front of her, Cassiopeia followed the Headmaster into the room, keeping the other two Professors behind her with her other hand.

Inside the room, Dumbledore was busy turning the unconscious body of, whoever the imposter was, on his back with one foot. To her left, Cassiopeia noticed her own face stare back out of what could only be a Foe-Glass. Real or not, any version of Mad-Eye seemed to be paranoid. The whole office was stuffed with books about defensive magic, dueling spells or counter curses. There were some empty potion vials on the floor and on the desk.

Finally her gaze fell upon Harry Potter. For the first time, she really looked at the boy. His black hair was a mess and he seemed to be bleeding from both his leg and arm. His face was a ghostly white, making his expressive green eyes stand out even more.

Professor McGonagall was trying to lead her small lion away to the Hospital Wing but Dumbledore stopped her, insisting on Harry staying. While they were talking, Cassiopeia went over to the body on the floor and searched the man. The only way to become such a perfect copy of Mad-Eye was Polyjuice Potion. Not even a Metamorphmagus could imitate a person so flawlessly. Since Mad-Eye was known for only drinking out of his own flask, it would be the perfect solution for hiding the vile brew.

Finding the silver flask, she smelled at it: "Definitely Polyjuice. We'll need a truth serum, Veritaserum if possible."

"Severus, would you please? And bring a house-elf named Winky from the kitchen as well. Minerva, if you would be so kind and go down to Hagrid's hut. You will find a black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Please bring him to my office and tell him to wait for me there," Dumbledore asked the two Professors.

"What do you need a house-elf for?" Cassiopeia questioned the old wizard, while she pulled a set of heavy keys out of the robes of the imposter. Looking around for fitting keyholes, she noticed a huge trunk with seven of them.

"Merlin, I hate those trunks. They are a menace if you search something," she grumbled but started to try out the keys. Without the truth serum, she had nothing to do anyway.

"You'll see when she arrives," the Headmaster said mysteriously. Cassiopeia glared at him. Couldn't he answer a question straight for once?

"Perhaps introductions are necessary. Ms Black, Harry Potter. Harry, this is Cassiopeia Black, your godfather's sister."

"Pleasure to meet you at last, Mr. Potter. I promise I am not trying to - will you go into that keyhole - kill you or do anything similar," Cassiopeia said pleasantly, struggling with a key. "What do you mean 'godfather', Headmaster?"

"Your brother is Mr. Potter's godfather, didn't you know?"

"Haven't really talked to my brother since I was a small kid," the witch answered, still fighting with the last keyhole. Finally, it opened, revealing a deep, dark pit. Lighting the tip of her wand, Cassiopeia peered down. "I found Mad-Eye," she told the others. "He's unconscious but seems to be alive."

"Good, then we only need to wait for the effects of the potion to die away," Dumbledore said, grabbing a chair and sitting down. Cassiopeia slid onto the floor right where she was standing. Depending on when he last took the potion, they could be sitting here for up to one hour. Hopefully, Snape would be quicker with his truth serum. They could ask him who he really was, without needing visual proof.

Cassiopeia glared at the unconscious man, annoyed. This was not how she had envisioned this day at all. She had thought about a quiet day, without any paper work, full of sitting around and waiting for nothing to happen. Well, the sitting around and waiting part was happening right now but that was _not_ what she had meant. And the report she would have to write about all of this...

Drumming her fingers on the floor, she watched the face of the man in front of her. Small shivers where running over the skin. Apparently, they did not have to wait too long. She got up, training her wand directly on his heart and watched the transformation occur.

Once the man was back to his normal self, she gasped: "That is..."

"Barty Crouch Jr.!" Snape said from the door.

"But he died in Askaban!" Cassiopeia stated, not trusting her own eyes. "It was in the newspaper."

"What is you doing here, Master Barty?" house-elf squeaked. Winky, Cassiopeia presumed. While the Headmaster calmed down the house-elf, the witch took the truth serum from Professor Snape. Veritaserum, she noticed, pleased. You had to give Snape that. When it came to potions, the man was excellently prepared.

Cassiopeia pulled up the unconscious man and leaned him against the trunk. After carefully administering the potion, she woke Crouch up. Once he opened his eyes, they immediately crossed, trying to fix on her wand between them.

"Good evening, Mr. Crouch. I am Ms Black, from the _Hit Wizard Office_," Cassiopeia said to him, smiling sweetly. "Would you be so kind and tell me why you are not dead and buried in Askaban?"

That was how she preferred to question suspects. Straight to the point. No unnecessary babbling. The name Black usually put the icing on the cake and they started to talk quickly, even without a truth serum, which was not always at hand.

"I never died in Askaban," the man explained in a flat voice. "My mother did. She took my place there and died. It was her last wish and my father couldn't deny her that. She was sick, didn't have to live much longer anyway, so when she visited me, we used Polyjuice Potion to switch places. My father smuggled me out, disguised as my mother and she died for me in Askaban."

"Don't! You is in big trouble for that!" the female house-elf wailed.

"Shut up!" Cassiopeia snapped at her. "Continue, Mr. Crouch."

"My father put me under the Imperius curse and kept me hidden beneath an invisibility cloak."

He continued, telling them about Bertha Jorkins, the Quidditch World Cup and how Wormtail and Voldemort had found him.

"Who's Wormtail?" Cassiopeia asked, confused. She had never heard of a wizard with such a strange name. There were a lot of magical people with odd names but she was sure she would have remembered Wormtail.

"Peter Pettigrew," Harry Potter answered her, his voice bitter.

"Peter Pettigrew is dead. My brother killed him."

"No he did not," Dumbledore said. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Ms Granger and Remus Lupin all saw Peter Pettigrew alive last year. His death was faked."

"Sirius did not kill Pettigrew?" Cassiopeia stared at the Headmaster. He may occasionally leave out things but she had never heard him lie. This did not make sense to her at all. Her brother had been sent to Askaban because he murdered Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles. How could Pettigrew be alive? "What about those Muggles? Did he kill them?"

"No, that was Pettigrew," Harry told her. "He blew up the street behind him, yelling for all to hear, that Sirius had betrayed my parents and turned into a rat and disappeared. He is an Animagus."

Cassiopeia blinked, not believing what she heard. "Wait, so you are telling me my brother has spent twelve years innocently in Askaban? Why didn't any of you say something? You could have had the hunt for him stopped months ago!"

"Pettigrew escaped. The word of three third-years would never have been enough for the Minister to call of the hunt," Dumbledore explained, giving her a sad look. Now that she thought about it, this certainly explained, how Sirius had been able to escape, again, when he had been caught in Hogwarts. With Dumbledore's aid... The Hit Witch glared at the Headmaster. Why had he not told her, at least?

"What about Remus Lupin? He could have told him. Or use Legilimency on the children. A skilled Legilimens can distinguish between a real and a fake memory. Or Veritaserum, they couldn't lie while under it!" Cassiopeia simply rattled off any idea that came to her mind. They did not really register with her, as she was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her brother had been innocent all this time.

Could she have known? Should she have known? Could she have done anything to get him out of that hellhole earlier? Where was he now?

"I think we should continue with questioning Mr. Crouch first. We can talk about Sirius later. Voldemort's return has to have priority, now," Dumbledore said, turning back to the Death Eater. "What did Voldemort do, once he found you?"

The Hit Witch wasn't actively listening to Crouch anymore, her mind had finally fixed on ways to proof her brothers innocence and to call off the hunt. If he wasn't hunted anymore, he could turn himself in without fearing the Kiss and have a trial to proof his innocence. Thinking about trial - why didn't the first trial proof his innocence? Veritaserum was standard procedure in such cases - unless there had never been a trial.

Cassiopeia stared blankly at the wall in front of her. That was the only possibility. But sending someone to Askaban without a trial broke about a dozen laws. The witch pinched the bridge of her nose. The headache she had felt at the back of her head, was making itself known full force now. There was too much new information for one day and she desperately needed sleep. The Pepper Up Potion she had taken had worn off earlier.

What did her mentor always say? If there is too much of a chaos and you can't get an overview, retreat. Retreat, analyze the new aspects, make a new plan and try again.

She could give her report about Voldemort's return tomorrow. Fudge and the Aurors had probably been informed about the Dark Lord's return by now anyway, so there was no need for her to alarm the _DMLE_. Thinking about that could wait until tomorrow.

Next topic. Sirius. She needed more information about that. Making a mental note to check for records on his trial as soon as she had the time, she decided that he had to wait. He had survived on his own until now, he would have to manage a couple more days. Preparing for Death Eater raids was more important than searching for her brother, who could be Merlin knows where. Perhaps she could subtly ask Kingsley Shacklebolt where her brother was assumed to be.

"Ms Black?" Dumbledore interrupted her thoughts. "Would you come with Mr. Potter and I?"

Looking around, she noticed Snape had left the room and Crouch had been bound and knocked out.

Right. There was still the escaped Death Eater to deal with. Would his testimony under Veritaserum be enough to call off the hunt for Sirius or would they say he lost his mind in Askaban?

"I should inform the Minister and the Aurors about Crouch. He's part of their jurisdiction. They need to bring him back to Askaban, until I have time to officially question him about Pettigrew," Cassiopeia answered.

"Professor Snape is already on his way to inform the Minister and Professor McGonagall will keep an eye on Crouch until they get here. You've done enough today and you look like you can use a break."

"That's a permanent condition in my job and I don't see it getting any better in the future," Cassiopeia sighted but got up to follow Dumbledore. Fudge usually agreed with everything Dumbledore said anyway.

"We will go to my office first. There is someone waiting for Mr. Potter there," Dumbledore told the two.

"Shouldn't he be treated by a Healer first? He's bleeding," Cassiopeia inquired, indicating at the injured arm and leg. Looking more closely at the pale young wizard she added: "He could probably use sleep even more than I, right now."

"We will go there soon. This is important for Harry."

The boy's quiet inquiry about the dead Champion's parents warmed Cassiopeia's heart. After all the child had been though, he still placed others before himself. It was a trait she rarely saw in people.

* * *

Once they had reached the gargoyle on the seventh floor and Dumbledore had give the password - a sweet, of course, didn't he ever run out of new ones? - they entered the Headmaster's office. Harry went first, followed by the Professor, with Cassiopeia last. Thus, she couldn't see whom the voice belonged to that was inquiring Harry about his health and the events of the past few hours. When Dumbledore stepped out of her line of sight, her mouth fell open.

This day had just officially made it on top of her list of the weirdest days of her life.

The last time she had seen the man in front of her, had been on a picture in the _Daily Prophet_, shortly after he had escaped. He had lost weight since then and his hair was even more tangled. 'Black' curls could be a real menace, if not cared for properly. She had made that experience, when they had hunted a dark wizard for three days without break. It had taken almost an hour to brush out the tangles but she refused to cut her hair.

The Hit Witch wanted to say something to him, a greeting, anything but what came out was: "You do realize I technically have to arrest all three of you now?"

Sirius looked up from his godson, his eyes widening when he saw her. His gaze traveled from her face to her silver-grey robes back to her face.

"Cassiopeia?" he finally croaked out.

"Hello, Sirius," the witch finally managed to greet him.

Her brothers eyes flickered between her and Dumbledore: "Why did you bring _her_ here?!"

Dumbledore shrugged and gave Cassiopeia an inquiring look, clearly waiting for her to make up her mind. There was much at stake for everybody in the room and it all depended on one small decision.

The witch sighed, massaging her temples. "Well, I haven't slept more than ten hours, in total, the past four days. The sleep deprivation must be finally making itself known. I am sure Albus Dumbledore would never hide a fugitive criminal in his office. Perhaps I should take some time off, until my head works correctly, again. I could actually go back to my parents house. No one except family and invited guests can enter there. It would be nice and quiet there."

She gave Sirius a pointed look, hoping he would pick up on her hint. Freaking out about helping an escaped Askaban inmate could wait until later. Besides, she wouldn't have to worry about finding him again then.

Looking at her brother again, she said: "You look terrible!"

"You don't look to good either," was his comeback. "No, honestly Peia, you look like a ghost."

"I need to know what happened, Harry," Dumbledore asked the boy.

"Can't that wait until later?" Sirius interjected and Cassiopeia snorted.

"Already suggested he should get some sleep first," she told her brother. "Didn't change anything, as you can see. But, perhaps Dumbledore is right. The times I landed at St. Mungo's, after a mission went wrong, I felt a lot better if I had talked about what happened, before they knocked me out - at least if I was still able to talk."

"Harry, if it would help to let you have a dreamless sleep first, I would let you have it. But, in my experience, Ms Black is right. The pain would be worse afterwards," the Headmaster told Harry, a concerned look on his face.

A soft thrill made Cassiopeia notice the Phoenix on Harry's lap for the first time. She went over to him and knelt down.

"Hello, Fawkes," she greeted him, before looking at the boy. "Take all the time you need. Don't force it out, just let it flow."

The same advice had been given to her, after she had participated in her first mission.

Green eyes focused on her face and the pain in them made her heart break a little. No one so young should have to feel this.

Harry took a deep breath and started talking. He told them about the Portkey taking Cedric Diggory and him to a graveyard, Pettigrew killing the Hufflepuff boy, Voldemort's resurrection. When he named the Death Eaters, that had returned to their masters side, Cassiopeia was not surprised to hear Lucius name upon them. Once Harry started to describe the duel, the witch held her breath. How had this boy survived a duel with the Dark Lord, when trained Aurors and Hit Wizards had failed? The connecting of the wands had her look up at Dumbledore. She could not remember ever hearing of anything like that happening.

"What - "

"Priori Incantatem," Dumbledore muttered. Following his gaze to Fawkes it finally clicked. Right. She _had_ read about it, during her N.E.W.T. preparations.

"Reverse spell effect, caused by twin cores."

"Indeed, Ms Black. Harry's and Voldemort's core are feathers from the same Phoenix."

The bird on Harry's lap gave a thrill, demanding attention.

"Yes, Fawkes," Dumbledore smiled. "The feather your wand is from Fawkes, Harry."

Cassiopeia petted the feathers of the Phoenix, while Dumbledore explained to Harry and Sirius what Priori Incantatem was about. The bird looked at her with his intelligent eyes and gave a happy chirp. It washed softly over the witch and calmed the thoughts that still tumbled in her head.

"But I think, it is time for the Hospital Wing and some Dreamless Sleep Potion for Harry. Sirius, would you like to go with Harry or talk to your sister?"

Sirius looked between his sister and his godson. Cassiopeia decided for him: "We can still talk later. Go with Harry, he needs you now."

Thinking for a second, she added: "How exactly is he supposed to go to the Hospital Wing, Headmaster? There are Aurors close by and I don't think most witches or wizards would simply let a fugitive criminal pass without notifying them. Unless Sirius is a Metamorphmagus and nobody ever told me, I don't see how - "

Her brother gave her a grin and turned into a big black dog. A grim. The witch stared at him, only her strict upbringing keeping her jaw from dropping.

"You're an Animagus. It doesn't say anything about that in your file," she said, giving him a disapproving look. "I take it you never registered?"

The dog wiggled its tail and began chasing it. The motion stirred some old, half forgotten memories of a dog playing with a small girl, in a park far away.

"Snuffles?" she said, disbelieving. Sirius gave a happy bark and jumped up to lick her face.

"Bah! Bad dog! Get down!" she complained, laughing hard. She had never expected to see the dog she had played with at the park, in front of their house, ever again. To find out the dog had been her brother all the time, made her happy. Even after he had left the family, he had still checked up on his little sister.

"You almost gave mother a heart attack once, do you know that? She came out to call me back in and found me playing with a huge grim."

"Will you come also?" Harry asked the witch shyly. Cassiopeia looked at him, astonished. She had not expected him to want her to stay, after all, they had just met.

"Alright. I need a Pepper Up anyway. Otherwise I will join you in taking a nap," she grinned at him.

"Perhaps you should. There are more than enough beds at the Hospital Wing and too much Pepper Up is unhealthy," Dumbledore interjected. Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at him but said nothing. He was right after all.

* * *

The Hospital Wing was full of noisy redheads, all wanting to know how Harry was and what happened. Apparently, the Weasleys had waited here, since Harry went back into the castle with the imposter. While Dumbledore explained to them that Harry needed to rest, Cassiopeia went over to a cabinet, where she knew from her school time the Pepper Ups were kept.

"And what exactly are you looking for, Ms Black?" Madam Pomfrey questioned her.

Trying to suppress a yawn, she answered: "Pepper Up. I need to get my brain awake."

Madam Pomfrey gave her a once-over and shook her head.

"No, no Pepper Up for you. You need to sleep. Potions do _not_ substitute for sleeping. How long have you been awake?"

"No idea. Eighteen hours?" she hazarded a guess. "Maybe twenty, I have no idea what time it is, right now."

The nurse's eyes narrowed. "And how many hours did you sleep?"

"Three?"

"Dreamless Sleep Potion for Mr. Potter and you then," the nurse decided, glaring at the questioning tone in the Hit Witch's voice.

Cassiopeia shook her head vehemently. "I will take a nap but I don't have time to sleep for long."

Madame Pomfrey gave her a very disapproving look but accepted. Noticing a comfortable looking chair next to the bed that had been designated an Harry's, Cassiopeia shooed the twin occupying it away.

Sirius, who had been watching his godson's every move, lay down on her feet. When she wiggled her legs in protest, the dog just snuggled closer.

"What is a dog doing in here? This is a Hospital Wing!" Madam Pomfrey's sudden outburst startled her.

"That's mine," Cassiopeia said, grinning down at her brother. "He is well behaved, don't worry."

Sirius chewed at her boot in retaliation but was careful to keep the action out of the sight of Madam Pomfrey. He did not want to get kicked out of the Hospital Wing. Watching him for a minute, Cassiopeia's eyes dropped shut and she nodded away.

The angry voice of Minerva McGonagall had Cassiopeia shoot out of the chair, accidentally kicking Sirius, who was still laying on her feet. The Animagus complained with a low whine.

"Sorry!" she apologized, patting him on the head, before stepping over him and drawing her wand.

Mrs. Weasley was bristling at the loud voices, claiming they would wake up Harry. Shortly after, the Minister and the Head of Gryffindor entered the Hospital Wing in search of Dumbledore.

"He obviously isn't here. Have the Aurors brought Crouch back to Askaban already?" Cassiopeia asked, just as the Headmaster reentered the room.

"I don't think Askaban is the place he will stay at in the future. Thanks to the Minister he will not be a danger to anyone again," Minerva McGonagall answered, still outraged. "He brought one of those horrible Dementors and it..."

"As it was my right as Minister. It is my job to protect the magical population from criminals!" Fudge shouted back. Cassiopeia stared at both of them, trying to connect the dots.

"He got the Kiss?!" Her voice sounded far more squeaky than she would like to admit. "You can't go around and sentence people to the Kiss!"

With Crouch out of the picture the only whiteness for the Dark Lords return they had - apart from Harry Potter - was gone. And the fastest way to proof Sirius' innocence.

"As I said, as Minister of Magic - "

Cassiopeia didn't give him the chance to finish his sentence: "Even if you are the Minister of Magic, you have no right to order a whiteness in an ongoing investigation to get the Kiss! This is perverting the course of justice! It is punishable with up to one year in Askaban, Minister of Magic or not!"

"He was a murderer!" Fudge roared. "Besides, there is no investigation he is wanted for!"

Cassiopeia glared at the man. "The death of Cedric Diggory is a pending investigation! And more importantly, he was a witness to the return of _You-know-who _and might have had important information on his whereabouts. Something that might have helped my office and the _Auror Office _greatly in the effort of getting rid of him again. Now we have nothing to work with!"

"You-know-who? Returned?" The Minister looked at Dumbledore as if hoping for him to deny it. The lime green bowler, that he so much liked to spin, lay loosely in his hands.

"As Minerva has surely told you, she, Professor Snape, Mr. Potter, Ms Black and myself heard him confess," the Headmaster answered.

"While Crouch was under Veritaserum," Cassiopeia added.

"That - the use of Veritaserum has to be officially sanctioned by the Ministry!"

Cassiopeia grabbed her robes shoving them, together with her _DMLE _badge, under the Minister's nose: "Is that official enough for you?! Hit Witches and Wizards are allowed to question under Veritaserum as they see fit. The required two witnesses were there as well."

Scrimgeour suddenly showed up in the door, waving Cassiopeia over. Looking at Dumbledore and trusting him to finish this argument, she went over the Head Auror.

"Why was there a Dementor on the grounds? The Minister wouldn't tell any of us what's going on. Did you find the one that cast the Imperius?" he asked her.

"We did. Barty Crouch Jr., posing as Mad-Eye."

Srimgeour eyes widened in disbelieve. "Barty Crouch Jr.?"

Sighing, Cassiopeia explained what had happened to the confused wizard.

"He is back then? Merlin's beard. We will need to prepare. I will call an emergency meeting for all of the Heads of the _DMLE _offices. Will you manage to be there at nine? - "

"You will do no such thing!" Fudge interrupted him. "_He_ is not back. We will not waste valuable time and personnel on hunting the figments of a boy's imagination!"

The slightly crazed look in the Minister's eyes had both members of the_ DMLE_ step back. Fudge stormed out of the Hospital Wing and Scrimgeour looked between Cassiopeia and the retreating back of Cornelius Fudge.

"You are sure he's back?" he asked quietly.

"I heard Crouch. I put him under Veritaserum, so there is no way he could have lied. If you need more proof - " Cassiopeia turned around to the Potion Master, signaling him to come over. "This should be enough."

She pulled back the Professor's left sleeve and exposed the Dark Mark.

"This is not how a dormant Mark looks like and the only one who can use them..."

The Head Auror pulled on his hair, already looking exhausted. "I will have to think about what we can do."

With that, he turned around and left. Cassiopeia turned back to Dumbledore. "You know how to contact me. Can I leave the dog with you for now?"

She needed to go back to the Ministry. There was an emergency squad of her office on call. She had to make everyone aware of the Dark Lord's return since the Minister was not likely to do so.


	5. Return to an abhorred childhood home

Thanks again for the lovely reviews. They give me the motivation to continue writing this story.

* * *

Cassiopeia was still fuming, when she apparated onto the doorstep of Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

She had spent the last one and a half weeks meeting with some colleagues and managed to convince some them to be at least more watchful. Most didn't outright believe that Lord Voldemort had returned, thanks to Fudge. The Minister had sent out a memo, warning every employee that Dumbledore had finally lost it and to not believe anything he said about Voldemort's return.

The slandering was getting worse every day. Yesterday, the _Daily Prophet_ had printed an article about Dumbledore and Harry Potter, that had Cassiopeia spend an hour in the training facilities, taking out her anger on some dummies. She didn't know what had enraged her more, the content of the article or the fact that the Minister could dictate what the newspaper wrote.

But today had topped it all. A woman, wearing so much pink it burned one's eyes, had shown up in her office to personally hand out another memo, stating that everybody, who supported Dumbledore's 'absurd theories', would face suspension. The Aurors and also the Hit Wizards were to focus solely on the capture of Sirius Black.

When the pink toad told her in that sickeningly sweet voice, that she was confined to do paperwork, because she was prejudiced, Cassiopeia had lost it. She had stormed out of the office, telling everybody she would take the rest of the week off. So what if they were under-staffed already? She was certainly not letting the Ministry dictate what she had to believe nor would she let a woman, who had probably not even seen a real duel in all of her life, tell her how to do her job.

Coming back to her childhood home left her with a strange feeling in her stomach. She could only hope Sirius had understood her in Dumbledore's office and had come here as well. The house was safer than being out on the streets, especially now, after the Dark Lord had returned. That he probably liked the house as much as she did - which is to say, not at all - was irrelevant. Safety had to be the top priority.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to the house she had promised herself to never set a foot in again.

Everything was dark inside. Lighting her wand, so she would not trip over anything the crazy house-elf might have left in the way - as he often had done - she carefully entered the house.

Narrowly avoiding the troll leg substituting as an umbrella stand, she was a bit distracted when the curtains to her right flew open. Looking up, she was met with a sight she could have done perfectly without.

_"You! Have you finally come home to visit your mother? Is that how you thank me for all the time I invested into your upbringing? Allowing that criminal into the noble home of your ancestors?"_

The screeching made her shudder. How she had _not_ missed that.

"Good morning to you too, mother," she spat, waving her wand at the portrait to get her to shut up.

The curtains flew shut again, muffling the screeching. Maybe not silence, but better than before.

"I wish I had a wand. It's annoying to try and pull them close every time she wakes up."

Whirling around, Cassiopeia pointed her wand at the chest of the speaker.

Sirius raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, a small smile on his lips.

"Your reflexes are amazing," he complemented, his eyes never leaving her wand. "You know, when you invited me here of al places, I had hoped it would be... I don't know... inhabitable."

He collected dust from a small table nearby on a finger and blew it into her face. Sneezing, she complained: "Don't do that! Another might accidentally fire off a spell."

"But you don't," Sirius grinned. "Now, I hope you've got some food with you. That blasted house-elf refuses to do anything I order him to do, correctly. Whatever I tell him, he finds a loophole. I've had burned food, frozen food and something that smelled like troll."

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. She knew Kreacher did not like her brother - he had mumbled enough about him when she had still lived at her parents' house - but to deliberately misunderstand orders?

"Kreacher!" Calling for the house-elf, she went into the kitchen. It was as dusty as the entrance hall.

"Young Mistress has called?" the house-elf asked, after he had appeared with a soft _plop_. _'Lets the traitor into the house. Would break poor Mistress heart if she could see -'_

"Kreacher! Make food for my brother and me and start cleaning this house afterwards. It's disgusting! Didn't I tell you to keep it in good condition when I left? Oh, and if there is not enough edible and tasty food for us on the table within one hour, your head will never be next to your mother's. Am I understood?"

The house-elf looked at her with watery eyes and obediently went to the stove.

_'Having a dirty criminal in the house of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black -'_

Or not so obediently. "You will refer to my brother as Master, nothing else - and keep your muttering to yourself, I don't want to hear it!" Cassiopeia snapped at the house-elf. "Well, that should take care of the food problem - at least I hope so. I haven't eaten since yesterday evening."

She looked at Sirius to find him staring at her.

"What?" she asked, self-conscious. She hadn't had much time in the morning and her long curls were a mess. Her repetitive pulling on it had not made it better. There were ink stains on her hand as well as her sleeve, caused by her angry stabbing of a form with her quill, while the pink toad had been reading out the memo.

"It has been a while, since I have truly had the time to look at my sister. You've grown up well," the Animagus said, stroking one finger over the dark bags under her eyes. "But you still look as tired as you did when we met in Dumbledore's office. Don't you ever sleep?"

Cassandra gave him a small smile: "On occasion. Why don't we go up into the drawing room, until lunch is ready? I may not be the most talented witch when it comes to cleaning spells but I think I can manage banishing some dust of a couch."

At least she hoped she could do so, without setting the thing on fire this time.

Giving Kreacher a side-glance, the siblings went upstairs, past the heads of the former Black house-elves. Their blank stare had crept the witch out as a child and she didn't feel much better now.

"Those definitely have to go," she muttered to herself, wondering if there was any curse on them, preventing it.

"Yes, please," Sirius agreed behind her.

After cleaning - without an accident - enough room on a sofa for them to sit on comfortably, Cassiopeia looked at her brother. She had so many questions and didn't know which to ask first. What did you ask your brother, when he had escaped out off the most secure prison in the whole country after spending twelve years in there, apparently innocent? How did you escape? Why were you imprisoned, if you are innocent? Didn't they use Veritaserum at your trial?

Sirius spoke up first: "Where do you want me to start? My escape from Askaban or the night the Potters were killed?"

Cassandra thought for a moment. If he truly offered to tell her everything... "Better to start at the beginning," the witch finally said. "I've heard bits from Dumbledore and Harry but all I really know is, that Pettigrew is still alive and you are innocent."

"Alright, then I will start with the day Peter was made Secret Keeper for the Potters..."

Cassiopeia could almost sense the headache she was going to have after this conversation but she let her brother talk, without interrupting him. She had learned that from questioning suspects. Once they talked, you let them finish before asking questions - easiest way to get all of the information.

By the time Kreacher called them for lunch, she was mentally exhausted - and Sirius had not even finished his story yet. How in Merlin's name had he survived all this and was still sane - or as sane as a Black could be. There were rumors after all, that insanity was an inherited condition in their family.

"I'll go wash my hands before we eat. I might still have pink toad cooties," Cassiopeia informed her brother.

"Pink toad...? Wait! Don't use the bathroom on this floor," Sirius said, grabbing her arm.

"Why?"

"There is something in there, I've heard noise coming from the room. I have not figured out what it is but, without a wand, I wasn't so keen on trying..."

"What happened to the famous Gryffindor courage?" Cassiopeia jested. "No, honestly. You mentioned you don't have a wand earlier. Do you know what happened to your old one?"

"They probably snapped it but nobody ever told me."

"I'll check, once I'm back at the office. For now - ," she reached down to her boot and pulled a wand out of a hidden holster. " - you can use this."

She threw it to her brother, who caught it easily. Absentmindedly she wondered how much her life had changed in the past week. From dueling and arresting dark wizards to hiding an alleged mass murderer and arming him. Well, at least nobody could say her life was boring.

"Why do you have two wands?" Sirius questioned her. After all, most wizards only had one wand during their whole life.

"My first wand was damaged in an arrest a couple of months ago. After that, I decided it's better to have a spare nearby - at least in my job," Cassiopeia explained, shrugging her shoulders.

Ollivander had been astonished when she had asked for not only one but two new wands. In the end he thought her reasoning to be sound. Fortunately, two wands chose her, one made of red oak, the other one of blackthorn. The latter had become the backup wand she had now given to her brother. "And now, I will go and hunt down this mysterious creature occupying the bathroom."

* * *

After banishing the pixies that had taken residence in the bathroom - however they had gotten in there - she joint her brother for lunch.

Sirius eyed the food carefully and Cassiopeia covertly cast a few charms, in case Kreacher had dared to disobey her orders. When she found nothing out of order, she began to eat. Kreacher's cooking skills had always been excellent and nothing about that had changed in the past years.

"What I wonder is, how did those pixies even get into the house?" Cassiopeia said, after a while. It wasn't as if the windows stood open for every creature to enter as they pleased.

"Pixies? Well, at least it wasn't anything to dangerous. I don't know if you noticed but I am quite sure the curtains in the drawing room are infested with doxys. There might be a boggard in one of the drawers as well."

Cassiopeia shuddered. After meeting a boggart whilst searching for a criminal in an abandoned house, in the middle of the night, she had lost all interest in meeting the creature ever again.

"Great. Are there any more creatures in here I should be aware of?"

"Well, I keep a Buckbeak in our parents room -"

"A hippogriff?! Why on earth do you keep him inside the house?"

"What else should I do with him? I can't set him free. A Muggle might see him and..."

"Ever heard of something called garden?" Cassiopeia asked with a sigh. If Charlie Weasley knew about a hippogriff being kept in a small room... well, let's not go there. She could remember his passionate speeches about dragons and all other kinds of creatures vividly.

"The garden is far too small for him and there is no way to make him stay in there."

"To small... are we talking about the same garden?" Cassiopeia wondered. The garden she remembered had not been small at all. Enlarged by strong enchantments and carefully warded, it had been big enough for her to practice Quidditch during the holidays. Something she had done excessively. It had not only resulted in victories for Slytherin but had also enabled her to spent as much time away from her mother as possible.

Sirius gave her a frown.

"Alright, come with me." Cassiopeia dragged her brother out of the back door and into the garden.

The flowers, that had once neatly grown in their beds were now everywhere. The hedges, that had obviously not been cut in a while, had grown wild and some parts had withered. The apple tree Cassiopeia had planted together with her father as a small child was now huge and bearing a lot of fruit. All in all, it looked nowhere as neat as it had, when Walburga Black was still alive and Kreacher had tended to it and the Hit Witch loved it. The wild and natural growing of the plants gave the backyard a whole different feeling.

A garden was one of the few things she missed in her flat. When she had moved out, the witch had looked for something small and practical, since she knew she would not spent a lot of time in there. The few days she did spent at home, she missed the opportunity to go outside. Of course, she could always go to a park, there were many of them in walking distance, but she disliked having people around. She could not relax if she felt like someone was watching her.

"Well, this is bigger than I remember," Sirius told her.

"And it has charms on it that prevent flying in or out of it," Cassiopeia added. "I think your hippogriff might like it in here."

A_ plop_ announced Kreacher's arrival.

"A visitor has arrived, young Mistress," the house-elf said. "Kreacher be bringing Headmaster in drawing room?"

"No, have him wait in the kitchen," Cassiopeia ordered. At least that room was clean now. There was no need to let anybody see the chaos for now. "Why is Albus Dumbledore in this house, Snuffles?"

The Animagus stopped his examination of the apple tree. "Dumbledore asked me to contact the old members of the Order of the Phoenix. He actually wanted to meet me at Moony's but I told him I would be staying here. I had not expected you to take so long to come here."

Cassiopeia looked at her brother: "Order of the Phoenix? What is that?"

For a moment, the wizard looked at her confused. "Right, you are too young to know. Perhaps it is better if you ask Dumbledore. He founded it during the last war and he can explain it better."

The siblings went back into the kitchen, where the leftovers from their meal had already been cleaned. Apparently Kreacher could work, if given the right initiative.

Dumbledore was sitting in the chair Sirius had occupied not half an hour before. His dark blue robes looked a bit rumpled and he appeared to be very tired, the bags under his eyes were far more pronounced than usual. Perhaps his futile work to convince the people of Voldemort's return took up a lot of his strength.

"Good afternoon, Headmaster. What can we do for you?" Cassiopeia greeted the old wizard with a nod.

"Good afternoon, you two. I had not expected to meet you here, Ms Black," the old wizard said, giving her a curios look over his half-moon spectacles.

"I took the rest of the week off," Cassiopeia explained. "The working atmosphere at the office is... not so nice at the moment."

Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled. The witch was happy to notice he had not lost that trait, yet. "Ah, yes. I have been informed about the new... instructions. I take it you are not so happy with them?"

Sirius looked at them curiously: "What instructions?"

His sister quickly explained what had happened at the Ministry since the Third Task and included a short summary of the _Daily Prophets_ articles, in case Sirius had not had a chance to read them.

Sirius fumed about the slandering of his godson: "How dare they say such things about a fourteen year old? Has he not suffered enough? How do they think this other boy died?"

Dumbledore put a calming hand on the Animagus' shoulder: "Sirius, we are all doing what we can to prepare the people for Voldemort's return. The Order is regrouping. Harry is safe for now."

"Sirius mentioned this Order of the Phoenix before. What exactly is that?" Cassiopeia asked.

"Mhh, what exactly is your view on the subject Voldemort right now, Ms Black?" Dumbledore asked back, giving the witch an expectant look.

It gave Cassiopeia the feeling of having to pass a test, but she did not have to think about an answer for long. "He has to be stopped. Another reign of terror, like when he was in power the last time, is unacceptable. I did not become a Hit Witch to sit back and watch, when a Dark Lord is around. I signed up to hunt criminals and put them into Askaban."

Dumbledore held Cassiopeia's gaze for a moment and the witch's eyes narrowed. She knew the Headmaster of Hogwarts was an accomplished Legilimens and she tightened her Occlumency shields on instinct. When the seconds passed and she did not feel an attack on her walls, she relaxed a bit.

"Very well. The Order of the Phoenix is an organization with the goal to bring down Voldemort. I founded it during Voldemort's last reign. Your brother was one of its first members, together with Remus Lupin and James and Lily Potter. Alastor Moody was also a member. Many of us died fighting Death Eaters. Perhaps you've heard about Gideon and Fabian Prewitt or the McKinnons? Frank and Alice Longbottom were also members."

Cassiopeia nodded. She knew about the Prewitts and the McKinnons. Pureblood families, that had been extinct in the male line during the war. The Longbottoms were a part of the family history, after all, it had been her cousin Bellatrix, that had sent them into St. Mungo's.

"I am currently trying to contact all living members, so they can prepare for another war but our numbers are small. The Order has never been big and we lost good people last time. We need new members. Younger witches and wizards that are willing to help us fight. I think Arthur Weasley's two oldest sons want to join-"

"If this is your idea of recruitment, you can stop now. You will need more than stories about the dead to get younger people to join, especially Slytherins. We do value our own lives," Cassiopeia sighed. This Order of the Phoenix seemed to be the main, or only, line of defense the magical society would have against Voldemort. They would need as many good duelists as they could find.

"_But_ I will stay around, considering my brother seems keen on being involved again. Someone has to keep an eye on him, otherwise some of my colleagues might find him. Besides, if you truly want to duel Death Eaters, you will need someone that actually knows what they're doing. Someone who knows more than just those children's spells they usually teach in DADA."

Staying around this Order of the Phoenix seemed to be the wisest choice right now. It may be risky with her job, but it was probably the only way to keep tabs on what the Dark Lord - she really needed to stop calling him that, least someone mistook her for a Death Eater - was doing. That wasn't something she could do alone whilst doing her job as well.

"Good, we can use more people - especially people in the Ministry. Cornelius might be stubborn in believing Voldemort to be dead but we cannot risk the people to be unprepared. We need to convince as many people as possible -"

Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at that: "Have fun trying that. I spoke to some people in _DMLE_. Most don't want to believe he's back and those who might are too afraid they might lose their jobs, if they openly support you. I can understand them. Not everybody has a family fortune to fall back on. I don't care what the Minister tries to do. My colleagues all know I love my job, but if someone annoys me, I'm gone."

For Cassiopeia, her work had never been about earning money. The Black family had enough of that and with Sirius in Askaban and Regulus dead, she was the only one, that had access. Well, she had made sure she was the only one. After her mother's death, she had gone to Gringotts and told them to deny any of her cousins access. She had wanted to clean the family name and for that, any ties to potential disasters had to be severed. It had pained her to also cut Andromeda off but she did not want to seem biased to either side.

Working as a Hit Witch had been another step in that plan. Of course, she had always been interested in DADA, her grades had been impeccable and she had learned about a lot of dark curses since she was a child. But working in Law Enforcement showed, that she was nothing like the family members rotting in Askaban. In the six years since she had left school, she had managed to convince at least her department, that she was not as dark, as her name might indicate. It was a baby step in her overall plan, but an important one none the less. The voices of those working for the _DMLE_ were respected all across the magical population. If they accepted her, other witches and wizards might at least start thinking. The fact that she loved the thrill of the hunt and the chance to use all of the curses she knew, was just an added bonus.

Dumbledore gave her a speculating look. "May I come back to that one day?"

"Huh? Me not caring about working at the Ministry?" Cassiopeia was confused. Why was that interesting for him?

"Yes, indeed. Sirius, did you reach all of the people I asked you to contact?"

"I did. Arabella will keep an eye on Harry for now. It took me a while to find Mundungus but he knows, as well as Moony," Sirius answered the Headmaster.

"Mundungus? Mundungus Fletcher?" Cassiopeia asked, disbelieving. There were not many, even amongst the magical people, whose name was Mundungus. It could only be Mundungus Fletcher. Why in Merlin's name would anybody want to work with him? "You do realize that he is wanted? I think they arrested him for minor thievery at least four times since I joined _DMLE_."

"That's Dung for you," Sirius grinned.

"Mr. Fletcher might not have the most respectable character but he hears things, that never reach people like you and me," Dumbledore explained.

Thinking about it for a moment, Cassiopeia nodded. Criminals knew each other and talked, that she had learned in her job. Many of them would also join Voldemort, if he asked them, of that she was sure. They could steal and kill and whatnot without fear of repercussion and he would gain followers, who's death did not matter in the overall scheme. They would be disposable but could be used to do smaller tasks - without it being connected to Voldemort or his Death Eaters by the authorities.

"I would enjoy staying a little longer, but, unfortunately, I have to go now. I have a meeting with Severus in ten minutes and I don't want to be late," Dumbledore said, turning to the door. "Sirius, I will contact you again."

Cassiopeia grabbed his arm to stop him: "Not so fast. Before you leave, I need an oath, that you never tell anybody about the location of this house without my explicit permission."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in question.

"This house has always been the refugee of my family. Only relatives of the Black family ever knew it's address - well, by now Sirius and I are the only ones. Neither Cissy, Bella nor Andy ever came here without their father. I will not risk compromising the security of this house. My father put far too much work into the wards and, in times like this, I'd rather have a safe house as a refugee."

"This is Dumbledore we are talking about," Sirius interjected. "He wouldn't tell anyone, and there is no one that could force him to!"

"I require an oath none the less. He might not give it away on purpose but I will _not_ risk it. An oath will stop him from revealing anything by accident. If I could cast it and be the secret keeper at the same time, I would have put the house under a Fidelius ages ago. Then it would be the safest place on the Isles, apart from Hogwarts. I may hate this house but having a safe place to retreat is invaluable. Besides, there are some things in here.."

"You will have your oath and I will help you with the Fidelius, if I get something in return," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"And what would that be?" Cassiopeia asked, suspiciously. She did not trust people who asked for something in return for a courtesy. If the other person had been anybody else, she may have obliviated them by now, but with Dumbledore, she knew her chances were slim to not existing. In addition, a strong witch or wizard may be able to find the information regardless of the spell, so an oath was the best option.

"We are looking for a safe place for the Headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix. A place where we can have meetings. Somewhere those members of the Order, that feel the security of their own houses is not good enough, can live. Sirius already suggested this house when I talked to him a few days ago, but he insisted on your permission. You would get your oath and the Fidelius, if you give me your oath not to betray secrets of the Order, and let us use the house as Headquarter. With you as the secret keeper, you will know about every person that can enter the house and nobody can give away the address," Dumbledore explained.

His reasoning was sound, Cassiopeia had to admit and having the house under the Fidelius was important to her. The risk that one of the Black sisters knew the address was slim, but there were dark artifacts in the house she would rather not see anywhere near them. She would still have to find them all and seal them away, so that no one could find and touch them by accident but, at least, no one would be actively looking for them.

"Very well. An oath for an oath for now. We should meet for the Fidelius at your earliest convenience. I assume you would want your Headquarter to be accessible as soon as possible?" Cassiopeia agreed to the Headmasters proposal.


	6. Unexpected letters and a Curse Breaker

Two days after Dumbledore's visit to Grimmauld Place, Cassiopeia was woken by the insistent pecking of an owl against the window of her childhood bedroom. She would have thought it to be strange, to sleep in the silver and green room again, but it had been very familiar and, somehow, comforting. The house may not be very welcoming but it felt more like a home than the sterile flat she lived in.

Perhaps the cold feeling of the flat was, why Bastet, her cat, did not like the flat at all. The slim, black cat with the amber eyes had been a present from her father, when she had been accepted into Hogwarts and the Hit Witch loved the animal more than almost anything. Because she worked so much, Cassiopeia rarely saw the cat but Bastet managed quite fine on her own. She knew where to find food in the flat and there were some charmed toys to keep her entertained. Whenever Cassiopeia came home, Bastet would come to the door, rub her head at her legs and request a scratch behind the ear.

When Cassiopeia had gone home for quick check up on her familiar after Dumbledore had left, the cat had been waiting at the door again but this time with all of her toys next to her. The Hit Witch had laughed at her cat's 'packing' but picked her and the toys up anyway and took them with her to Grimmauld Place. She was not afraid of Bastet touching anything dangerous. The cat was extremely intelligent and grew up in the house. She knew where to go and what places best to avoid. Perhaps she could also help get rid of some of the creatures, that had taken up residence in the house. At least, they would provide a good opportunity to hunt for the cat.

The owl pecked at the window again. Not bothering to get up just yet or disturb Bastet, who slept peacefully on the witch's feet, she waved her wand at the window. It opened and the owl swooped in, dropping a letter onto her bed. Picking it up and turning it around, Cassiopeia was surprised to find Gringotts official seal. What was so important for the goblins to write to her? Was there a problem with the vault?

_Dear Ms Black, _

_an appointment with our Curse Breaker, Mr. William Weasley, has been scheduled for four p.m. this afternoon, as requested. Please arrive at the Main Hall, you will be picked up from there._

_Kind regards,_

_Ragnok_

_Gringotts Wizarding Bank_

_Diagon Alley, London_

Requested appointment? She could not recall requesting any appointment, least of all with William Weasley. What in Merlin's name would she need a Curse Breaker for? Well, except for decursing half of the house...

Knowing that many of the people coming to the house in the foreseeable future had not grown up in a dark family, Cassiopeia had started to clean the house of dangerous objects. Sirius had tried to be of as much help as he could be but, since he had spent about thirteen years without a wand, Cassiopeia did not trust in his abilities.

Perhaps his tendencies to fool around had been another reason for her to ban him from the room she was working on. She had just found out he had been innocent this whole time, there was no need to lose him because he touched the wrong object. How he had survived in this house sixteen years was a mystery to her.

The sheer number of cursed objects in the ancestral Black home had surprised Cassiopeia. She had known about many of them but, apparently, Walburga Black had acquired even more in the time between her daughter's moving out and her death. How she had done that, considering she had never left the house, would forever be inexplicable.

Even though it would have made sense to start her cleaning at the entrance door and work through the rooms, that would be used most, Cassiopeia had started with her parents room - after Sirius brought his hippogriff outside. Perhaps throwing out things her loathed mother had owned, helped her to make this house feel more like a place she did not need to dread.

From her father's things, Cassiopeia had kept a few items. Orion Black had died while she was at Hogwarts and her memories of him were fond ones. Her brother seemed to hate both of his parents equally, but the witch had loved the father, that had enlarged the garden for her to play in and bought her Bastet. The family ring he had always worn, was safely around her neck, as a good luck charm.

Kreacher had been terribly unhappy, when he saw her throwing out the contents of her mother's wardrobe. His insistent wailing about traitors had given Cassiopeia a headache. She had to forbid him speaking, until told otherwise, to get him to shut up.

Another owl, coming through the still open window, brought her the answer to the strange appointment at Gringotts.

_Dear Ms Black,_

_I would schedule our meeting for tonight at half past five, same place as last time._

_I have requested a meeting with William Weasley in your name, perhaps Gringotts already sent a letter. I apologize for impersonating you, but it is important for us to have Mr. Weasley there tonight. As it is detrimental for him to be seen with me and I cannot bring him to our meeting place, I would ask you to bring him with you._

_Kind regards,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. Apparently, the Sorting Hat had made a mistake with putting Dumbledore into Gryffindor house. That was another decidedly Slytherin move of him.

At least, she now knew, why she had an appointment at Gringotts but Dumbledore had not explained what they would be needing William for. Casting the Fidelius would only take her, as the secret keeper and Dumbledore, as the caster. What also confused her was, why Dumbledore thought it safe to write her but not Bill. She could not see any logic behind this but this was probably all part of one of his big plans.

Grumbling, Cassiopeia got out of her bed. If the Fidelius was to be cast tonight, she did not have much time to make the inside of the house as safe as possible. Knowing Dumbledore, the first members of his Order would be parading through the house very soon.

* * *

Cassiopeia apparated to the _Leaky Cauldron_ at three, neither wanting to use the floo, nor being able to do so, since there was no floo connection at Grimmauld place. Her father had been so paranoid about unwanted guests in his last years, he had cut off the connection completely.

The _Leaky Cauldron_ was almost empty. There was a group of wizards, chatting in a foreign language in one corner and another wizard, reading a magazine at the bar. The witch gave Tom a short nod, before leaving through the back door.

Diagon Alley, she noted as soon as the wall opened, was crowded as usual. People wearing robes in colors the Hit Witch had not known existed, were everywhere and their chatter and the hooting of owls was drowning every other noise. One barely needed to step into the alley, before being completely surrounded by people.

Cassiopeia hated this place with passion. Most of her colleagues tended to avoid places like this if possible, because their training made being there almost unbearable. Every single one of her senses was working overtime, trying to find potential threats.

Normally, she would have apparated to somewhere closer to Gringotts and not so much ahead of time, but she wanted to observe the crowds, wanted to see their reactions to the articles in the_ Daily Prophet_. She wore working attire on purpose - technically a Hit Witch or Wizard was never truly off duty - and it was a legitimate excuse to hide her face underneath her hood. There were still some, who were afraid of members of the Black family and there was no need to cause panic.

Walking silently through the street, Cassiopeia watched the people do their purchasing. On many shop windows, front pages of the _Daily Prophet_ were displayed and pictures of Harry Potter and Dumbledore were staring at her from all directions. One article, that announced Dumbledore's removal as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, had her scowl. The date on the newspaper was today's, and it was announced as a decision from yesterday evening.

Cassiopeia's eyebrows shot to her hairline. How had they managed to put an article on the front page about a decision, that was finalized shortly before midnight? Even if they had made an exception for such an important decision, no one would have been able to write a front page article on such a short notice and magical newspapers didn't print themselves within seconds.

Deadline for articles was nine p.m., so it would be ready for dispatching with the owls at four a.m.. She knew that, because she had sent several articles to the _Prophet,_ on behalf of a colleague, to be published. Besides, didn't the dismissal of the Chief Warlock require the convening of the whole Wizengamot, just like the election? Why hadn't she been notified? The Black family, like most pureblood families, still held a hereditary seat and, in her brothers - forced - absence, she held it.

Making a mental note to investigate this matter further, Cassiopeia browsed through a few shops, buying some treats for Bastet and continuing her observations.

Several people had talked about the articles, an astonishing number of them agreeing with Fudge. A few whispered conversations had died down, once the Ministry employee was noticed. The Hit Witch made another mental note on those. People trying to hide things always made her curious, especially now. The list of those, willing to believe Lord Voldemort was back, was surprisingly short and every name added would be a step into the right direction.

* * *

A few minutes before four, Cassiopeia entered Gringotts. She had never liked being late, and now, body trained on observing her surroundings for potential threats, she liked to have enough time to spare to get a good look around.

The Main Hall of the bank was full of goblins. Goblins pulling around carts full of gems or gold, goblins talking in Gobbledegook and goblins leading witches and wizards to their vaults.

Thinking about vaults, Cassiopeia finally had an idea what to do with some of the cursed objects at Grimmauld Place - at least those, that were not goblin made. No one would be able to touch them or get hurt once they were in the family vault. Pity she hadn't thought about it before, now she'd have to come again. Mentally sorting through all of the items she knew about or had found already, she failed to pay sufficient attention to her surroundings and surprised herself by being startled by one William Weasley, not five feet away from her.

"Good afternoon, Ms Black. If you would follow me," the Curse Breaker greeted. Adapting herself to his formal tone, Cassiopeia gave a polite greeting and followed the redhead into a corridor. It was quite vast, dozens of doors on both sides, some were open to reveal a glimpse on a goblin scribbling on a paper or examining a strange object but most were closed.

The Hit Witch noted, that none of the doors had name signs. There were only numbers. One would have to know the office number of a person, to be able to find their office. Annoying for customers in search of someone specific, but a great way to thwart potential danger.

There were absolutely no windows in sight. The only source of light were three chandeliers hanging at the ceiling. Cassiopeia estimated the ceiling was almost as high as in the Main Hall. Seeming endlessly long and so very high, while being narrow at the sides, the corridor made the hairs on the back of the witch's neck rise.

"Here we are. Just straight through the office to the next door," Bill said, holding a dark, wooden door open for her. Office 28B, the witch noted. Thanking him with a small nod, Cassiopeia walked into the open plan office.

About a fifteen desks were in the room, but not even half as much humans. Most of them were immersed in parchments. It kind of reminded the witch of her own office at the Ministry, especially the piles of what was obviously paperwork.

A dark haired wizard looked up from his writing and gave Cassiopeia a quizzical look. A bit belated, she noticed she was still wearing her hood. Good thing William already knew her and her occupation, otherwise he might have spent some time looking for her.

The room behind the open plan office held a round, wooden table, with a couple of chairs sporadically around it. It was, apparently, used as a conference room.

Cassiopeia took her time to admire the woodwork on the walls. Even though goblins were usually known for their silver-work, they had a good eye for decorative woodwork. The backrests of the chairs also held intricate carvings, the witch noticed when she pulled one back to sit down on.

"I must say, I was surprised, when I was informed about our meeting," Bill said, as he sat down on the chair next to her. "I am afraid, I do not know why you requested to meet me, so I came completely unprepared."

Cassiopeia involuntarily smiled at his formal tone. Had this been an interrogation, she would have said the suspect was feeling insecure. A great starting point for getting information out of him.

"Don't worry, William. I was just as surprised when I got a letter from Gringotts this morning, confirming an appointment I never asked for."

Bills eyebrows scrunched. "What do you mean, you never asked for...?"

"Apparently, I am your means of transportation. At least, that is what the letter Dumbledore sent me said. The old man was not very specific otherwise," Cassiopeia explained with a shrug. To be honest, it kind of annoyed her to be reduced to a common pack animal but - damn her curiosity and the Slytherin determination to satisfy it - she wanted to know what Dumbledore planned.

Now, Bill looked even more confused, not that Cassiopeia could resent him that.

"You lost me. Why would Dumbledore request a meeting, in your name, so you could bring me somewhere? Why not simply tell me when to be where? How could he even be sure I have time?"

"Well, apparently, it is bad to be seen with him or be seen corresponding with him at the moment. Don't ask me, why he thinks my reputation does not matter... Did you read, they dismissed him as Chief Warlock, yesterday? I truly wonder how Fudge managed that. Well, I am not even sure what he did was legal. Anyway, the reason why I have to pick you up is simple. You can't get there otherwise... Where did you get that?" Cassiopeia asked, nodding at the fang earring Bill was playing with.

"The earring? I got that one in Egypt. Mum was not pleased when she saw it. Not that she was very pleased with my hair, either..," Bill started his explanation. "We were in a tomb of an ancient wizard. Merlin, he knew about curses, you can believe me. The wards he placed before his death were amazing. Anyway, it was one of my first tombs. I was inside with two other Curse Breakers and we had just managed to open the door to another room. The room wasn't too big, but it was cursed to cancel _lumos_ and any similar spell. Of course, we didn't notice this particular curse when we entered it, so we were in the dark."

Bill made a short dramatic pause: "So, when we were trying to get back out - mind you, there was absolutely no light, not even from the outside - we used our hands to feel for the wall. Not the brightest idea, but we did it. Well, and the first thing I found, was a snake, an Egyptian cobra. I was lucky, I grabbed it right behind the head. One bite and I would have been dead within minutes."

"It wouldn't have bitten you," Cassiopeia teased. "Every good snake knows: A dead lion is a boring lion. And we hate boring, your recklessness is far more entertaining."

At this, Bill had to laugh. "Well, Good to know we Gryffindors provide the entertainment for you Slytherins."

"Everybody has to be of some use," the witch answered with a shrug, but could barely hold back her giggles.

"Back to the story. We kept the dead snake as a trophy and my colleagues gave me the earring as a birthday present. They put a lot of spell-work in it. There are even runes engraved, to ward of bad luck, see?"

He carefully handed her the earring and pointed at tiny markings all around it. Cassiopeia studied the runes for a moment, trying to see if she could translate any of them. The last time she had been brooding over rune translations had been during her N.E.W.T.s. and she was curious, if she could still remember some. Most of the symbols did indeed look familiar but she could not figure out the whole meaning behind them. Maybe a refresher course was in order - should she ever find the time to spare.

"Should I be worried, if you like to keep dead snakes as trophies?" the witch asked, handing the fang back.

"No need. Every lion knows: You need to kill the bad snakes, but not all snakes, otherwise, there is no one interesting to beat at Quidditch."

"Touché."

They lapsed into silence, while Bill tried to put his earring back where it belonged.

"Well, that still leaves us with this mysterious meeting with Dumbledore," he said, after he had finally managed it.

"He said, he will be there at half past five. That leaves us with..." Cassiopeia checked her watch. "Ninety-five minutes. Getting there won't take us long. I'll just take you Side-along, right onto the doorstep."

"And what does he need me for?"

"I have no idea."

* * *

"Home, sweet home," Cassiopeia said, when she and Bill landed on the doorstep of Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

They had spent the last hour and a half swapping stories about Hogwarts and the times, they were called into the headmasters office. Since both of them had been Head Boy and Girl, there had been plenty such occasions. The old wizards peculiar behavior had them giggle like little school girls sometimes and, when Bill went to grab his things, his colleagues had given him inquisitive looks. Cassiopeia just hoped they hadn't heard anything, otherwise the rumors about Black madness would increase tenfold.

Yes, she had been involved in a couple of questionable pranks that nobody ever figured out she was to blame for. Well, technically they had been Charlie's idea and she had only been roped into helping him. She had never complained, though, since this was the best way to be informed about what places to avoid at what time. It also made sure, she could keep the Gryffindor out of trouble, given that his planning tended to be a bit sketchy. Maybe - and she was admitting to nothing - she had blamed one of the pranks on a fellow Slytherin, that had made an insulting comment about the Weasley family. Maybe it had gotten him detention for a month. Maybe she had gloated about that a bit in the Slytherin common room and, maybe, most of the snakes had joined her.

Opening the door, the witch warned the Curse Breaker: "Be careful where you step and don't touch anything. And, please, don't scream, if you see the other inhabitants."

It was the first time she remembered Sirius being there as well. Cassiopeia was not sure if Bill knew about her brother being innocent. That was a potential problem she had no plans for.

"Why, hiding your brother?" Bill teased her, but sobered up when she only closed the door behind them, not looking at him. "You are honestly hiding your brother here? We had wondered where he went, when he left the Hospital Wing after the Third Task but hiding right under the _DMLE_'s nose? That's what I call courage."

Cassiopeia whirled around. "How do you know Sirius was at the Hospital Wing that day?" she asked.

"Dumbledore asked him to turn back to his human form, shortly after you left. It nearly gave Mum a heart attack - at least that is what the twins and Ron told me. I left before that, to warn Dad, since he wasn't there. Ron told me the whole story of how they met your brother in their third year and about Scabbers being Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form. I know your brother is innocent and only escaped to protect Harry."

The witch threw her cloak into the general direction of a coat rack, which leaped forward to catch it. The coat rack was one of the few bewitched objects in the house that she truly liked.

"Why am I always the last person to be told about important things?" she grumbled. "Snuffles? Where are you? We have a guest!"

_"Filthy blood traitor! You have no place in my house!"_ The curtains of the portrait had flown open and the slightly yellow face of Walburga Black stared at the two. Morgana, she had forgotten about the portrait.

"Good evening to you, too, mother!" Cassiopeia drawled, mortified by her mother's behavior but doing her best to hide any visible signs.

_"How dare you bring such filth into my house? First that murderer and now a blood traitor. Have you no respect for your noble blood? You should be - "_

"If I remember correctly, the house belongs to Sirius, did so ever since father died. As long as he is officially convicted, I am responsible for it, so it is _my_ house. And now shut up!"

Waving her wand, she forced the curtains back over the portrait.

"Once I find a way around that permanent sticking charm she put on the portrait, I will throw her out," she vowed, glaring at the curtains.

"And I will gladly help you. I could hear her screeching all the way up to the third floor," Sirius added from the stairs.

The last two days, that Cassiopeia had spent searching for potentially dangerous objects, she had forced Sirius to spent cleaning himself up. He still looked far too thin, but the few good meals he had gotten, made him seem less starved. The tangled curls, that had reached his elbows, had been cut back to chin-length and his beard was trimmed. At least he looked like a human being again.

"My eardrums still ring," Cassiopeia complained, rubbing her ears. "Next time, you get to stand right next to her when she starts."

Next to Cassiopeia, Bill curiously studied the escaped convict.

"Ah, introductions, right. Sirius, William Weasley. You saw him in the Hospital Wing. William, my brother Sirius. Be careful, I've heard he used to be even more of a prankster than your twin brothers."

Bill, ever the Gryffindor, did not shy away from shaking the hand of someone he had believed to be a mass murderer not a month ago. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Black. Ron told me a lot about you. And, it's just Bill. I don't know why Cassiopeia insists on calling me William."

Sirius smiled. "Probably because you call her Cassiopeia. No Black likes to be called by their first name. Andromeda prefers Andy, Narcissa is just Cissy, Bellatrix is Bella, Regulus was Reg -"

"Don't forget Nymphadora, Andy's daughter. She prefers her last name, Tonks," Cassiopeia interrupted him.

"Does she now? I haven't seen her since she was a baby... well, I am Padfoot -"

"Snuffles!"

"Or Snuffles," Sirius amended. "I should never have turned into a dog in front of you, while you were still a child. I should have known a Slytherin like you would use it against me one day. That's what you get for looking after your younger sibling. Anyway, we call Cassiopeia Peia."

"Peia?"

"Well, since our great-aunt was also called Cassiopeia, Cassie was already taken," Sirius continued his explanation. "There would have been too much confusion at Sunday lunch if there were two witches with the same nickname."

"So you will call me Bill, if I call you Peia?" Bill asked the witch curious.

Cassiopeia pretended to think about it. "I may agree to that proposal."

The ringing of the doorbell woke Walburga Black up _again_ and Cassiopeia and Sirius groaned simultaneously.

"You show Bill to the kitchen, I handle the door and mother," Cassiopeia said, already reaching for the door handle.

As expected, Albus Dumbledore stood there, one eyebrow raised at the racked inside the house.

"Please excuse my mother. I have yet to find a way to get rid of her. Come on in." Cassiopeia stepped aside and held the door open, just long enough for Dumbledore to enter, before shutting up her mother's portrait again.

"Walburga Black always did have a, ... well..., noticeable voice," the old wizard said, eyeing the curtains, that were now hiding the portrait.

"Noticeable is very polite. Shrill is what I would call it. Terrible. Caused me more than one headache - but I digress. Bill and Sirius are waiting in the kitchen, Headmaster."

"Excellent, excellent. Everybody is here already. I hope I didn't cause you too much inconvenience with picking up William?"

He did not seem apologetic at all, rather, there was an subliminal curiosity about something Cassiopeia could not grasp. Her eyebrows narrowed as she studied the old wizard, trying to figure him out and failing. "No, no. The trip to Diagon Alley was very informative. This way, please."

Cassiopeia led Dumbledore into the kitchen, where the other two wizards had already sat down. "Should I asked the house-elf for anything? Tea? Sandwiches?"

"I would take some tea," Dumbledore said, sitting down next to Sirius.

"Kreacher!"

The house-elf arrived with a small _pop_. "The young Mistress called for Kreacher?"

"Bring us some tea and sandwiches!" Cassiopeia ordered, glad to notice he was wearing a clean towel today. Despite his fits about her throwing away her parents' belongings, the house-elf had started cleaning the house again. At least, the dust was gone now in her and Sirius' rooms. There was still dust and some creatures, hidden behind curtains or in drawers in the other rooms, though. The witch supposed she would have to get rid of those herself. Kreacher was far too old to do this.

Kreacher obeyed instantly and it didn't take long for the tea and sandwiches to arrive. Cassiopeia stared pointedly a her brother, until he took one of the sandwiches.

"Very good. I assume you wonder why you are here, William?" Dumbledore asked, watching Sirius chew over his half-moon spectacles.

Bill nodded.

"Sirius and the young Ms Black were friendly enough to offer this house as Headquarter for the Order."

_Offer? I certainly did not offer, _Cassiopeia thought grumpily. _It was the only way not to compromise the security._

Dumbledore continued, oblivious to the witch's thoughts. "I was told the wards on the house are some of the strongest on the Isles. I remember Orion Black having a talent for protective wards but I would like you to check on them none the less. We will put the house under a Fidelius as well, so we can be sure nobody will find us here."

"The wards are in perfect working condition," Cassiopeia interjected, affronted. "I may not be a Curse Breaker but I know enough about wards. If you want him to check on anything in or around the house, have him search it for cursed objects. Some of the rooms here are death traps for anyone, that did not grow up in a dark household."

"Especially upstairs. Did you notice the grandfather clock throws metal objects at anyone passing by?" Sirius said, exposing a bloody scratch near his hairline.

His sister got up from her chair, examining the wound before healing it with a flicker of her wand. Healing spells were an annoying necessity in her job. Whether one got hit by a spell or broke a bone trying to avoid one, injuries happened on a daily base. Cassiopeia never really got the hang of most of them, but she knew enough to keep a patient stabile until they got him to St. Mungo's.

"It throws things?" Cassiopeia asked astonished. She did not remember that and, since she had not passed the clock during the last days, had not been subjected to the peculiar behavior. "Well, the next thing that gets thrown will be the clock itself. I never liked it. Did you see the carvings near the bottom? Absolutely disgusting!"

"There are cursed objects in the house?" Bill asked, looking at the Black siblings. "Is it safe to be used as Headquarter?

"As long as nobody touches anything, it is quite safe. I have started looking for those items, since the decision to use this house as headquarters was made. I will relocate most of them to the family vault in Gringotts. They can't hurt anybody there," Cassiopeia explained about the decision she had made earlier.

Bill nodded, relieved. "Perhaps you should let me have a look at the items before you move them. Transporting cursed objects can be difficult," he offered.

The witch smiled thankfully at him. She had worried about how to get them safely to Gringotts. Some of the curses interfered with each other if put into close proximity. It would also cause problems in the vault, if not all of the items were places with the uttermost care.

"A point we should return to later, but we need to move back to the important tasks at hand. The Fidelius and the wards," Dumbledore steered the conversation back to the original topic. "I believe that your father's wards are flawless but I would like William to check none the less. Perhaps there is a new ward, that has not been added yet."

Cassiopeia rolled her eyes, but waved her hands at Bill, permitting him to start. The sooner they got over with this, the better.

It was interesting to watch the Curse Breaker work. For a moment, he simply sat there, eyes closed, seemingly doing nothing. The Hit Witch had observed similar behavior in colleagues, who had a hand for dismantling wards during their 'hunts'. He was feeling for the magical signature of the wards. Once he found them, he could begin to feel along the separate strands and examine them.

After a while, Bill's eyebrows furrowed and he gripped his wand more tightly. "There is a strange ward around the house. I have never seen anything like that. Touching it feels strange, as if it was supposed to hurt, but doesn't quite do the job."

Dumbledore and Sirius looked at each other worriedly, while Cassiopeia tried to remember everything her father had told her about the wards. "I think there are blood wards in there. Quite a dark and nasty piece of magic. Anybody who's not a Black and comes close to the ward will experience unbearable pain. At least, if their intentions towards the family or the house are bad. I guess, since you are a distant relative, it just warns you not to remove it."

"Blood wards. I've heard of them. Not really legal, are they?" Bill asked.

Cassiopeia shrugged. "Who cares? The Ministry doesn't even know about the existence of the house, so how should they know about the wards?"

"Ah, yes, I noticed. Unplottable, Muggle-repelling charms, anti-Portkey and anti-Apparition wards, blocked floo connection. Your father was very thorough with his warding. And there are quite a few nasty ones hidden underneath."

"So the wards are alright?" Dumbledore asked.

"Strong, effective and quite mean," Bill confirmed. "This is one of the safest buildings I have ever seen. If you put it under a Fidelius, it will be almost impenetrable."

"Good, very good. It eases my mind to know the Order has a safe place to retreat to. If you would like, we can place the Fidelius now, Ms Black."

Cassiopeia took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, let's start."

They went outside, since the charm could not be placed, if they were in the place that would be hidden afterwards. The small park across the street, in which Cassiopeia had played with a transformed Sirius as a child, was a good spot. It was deserted and nobody could see what was going on from the outside.

The feeling of the charm itself was unlike any Cassiopeia had ever experienced. At first, she felt only the power of Dumbledore's magic, but soon, something heavy seemed to be pressed into her body, making it hard to breath. It anchored itself deep inside her soul, feeling both alien and familiar. The witch gasped for air when the pressure finally vanished.

"Did it work?" she asked. "What's the address of the Black family home?"

Sirius looked at her, blinking slowly. "It's..., it's... I don't remember."

Cassiopeia sighed, relieved. Conjuring a piece of parchment and a quill, she quickly wrote down the address for the others to read.

_The ancestral home of the Black family and the Headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix is at Number 12, Grimmauld Place_


	7. A whole lot of cursed stuff

Thanks to all of my lovely reviewers!

* * *

The next day, a Saturday, Bill returned to Grimmauld Place, as he had promised the day before, when he left. There were too many dark objects in the house, Cassiopeia was not sure how to handle correctly. The curses she usually dealt with were flying through the air and, once you avoided them, you did not have to care about them any longer.

The handling of a cursed object was so much different. You needed to know what kind of curse the object contained, preferably how long the curse was contained already and how to counter the curse. Once you figured all of this out, you could try to lift the curse or, if that was not possible, try to transport it somewhere safe. This was, what Curse Breakers specialized in and the knowledge that his parents would spent time in the house during meetings, gave Bill enough reason to spent his free time working on the house.

"I just have to be back for dinner. Mum is so happy all of her children are in the country, she is cocking big," Bill told her, when he arrived.

"Charlie's back in England?" Cassiopeia asked, surprised. "I thought he was still in Romania. He didn't write about coming back."

"He came home yesterday evening. Dad wrote him about what happened and Charlie wants to see what he can do to help. He was lucky to get a long-distance Portkey so quickly. Usually, it takes ages until they are approved, so Charlie rarely visits."

The witch steered Bill into the kitchen, far away from the portrait of her mother. She didn't want to deal with her screeching again and the longer they stayed in the entrance hall, the bigger the risk of waking her up. "Tell him to write me an owl, if he needs a Portkey again. I know someone in _Transportation_, who can speed up the process a bit. Do you think Charlie will join the Order?"

Bill nodded. "Yes, there is no question about that. No Weasley will bow to a Dark Lord without a fight. I didn't even have to think about it for a minute. The day after the Third Task, I applied for a desk job in England. The goblins were not too happy about it but I wanted to be closer to the family. They were fast with getting me a desk job, though. Not two days after I applied, I go a letter, telling me to hand over my last excavation to a colleague and the details of my new job. Charlie will probably stay in Romania. There are no dragon sanctuaries here and I doubt that he will give up on his dragons."

"That would not be the Charlie I know. He loves his dragons too much to do that. How long will he stay here?" the witch asked, picking up the cup of tea she had been drinking prior to Bill's arrival. It was her whole breakfast, so she could at least drink up.

"Only for a week. He couldn't take off more time."

"Pity, I would have liked to meet him again but I have to work," Cassiopeia said, shaking her head sadly.

Hanging out with Charlie had always been fun. They had bickered about Quidditch endlessly. But, most of all, Cassiopeia had liked the stories about his family, his parents, his younger siblings. There was so much love and happiness in them, the witch could forget about her own, dysfunctional family for a moment. If she ever had a family of her own, she wanted it to be like the Weasleys.

"You could come with me tonight. Mum would be delighted to have another person to spoil with her cooking," Bill suggested with a smile. "Charlie and the rest of the lot would surely love to have you around. I think Ron and Ginny were nowhere near finished pestering you with questions. Ron seemed to be terribly interested in your profession."

"I can't simply arrive, uninvited and unannounced! That would be terribly impolite," Cassiopeia protested. "Besides, I can't leave my brother alone."

"I just invited you and I can notify my mother in a minute. Charlie would be happy to see you. Besides, you could use the chance and tell my parents the location of the Headquarter. It would even save you a trip, later and I'm sure Sirius is old enough to be left alone for one evening."

Cassiopeia sighed. His arguments were solid and she had not seen Charlie in a while. To be more precise, she had not seen him since she graduated. She knew he had been at the Quidditch World Cup Finale but had not managed to talk to him. The arrival of the Death Eaters had thwarted her plans of meeting him after the game had finished. "Fine, I'll talk to Sirius."

Gulping down the rest of her lukewarm tea, she asked: "Where do you want to start? With the items I already found and removed, or searching for new ones on the ground floor?"

Bill looked around, indecisively. "Are the ones you found stored away safely?"

Cassiopeia looked at him, innocently. "They are upstairs in my bedroom?" At Bill's incredulous look she added: "It's the only place, in the whole house, I can be sure Kreacher won't try to steal them back. If he tries, Bastet will scratch him. I don't know how she does it but every time he shows up in my room, she enters not a second later."

The Curse Breaker shook his head and Cassiopeia got the feeling he did not agree with her argumentation at all. "Alright. I will start with the ones you already found. You can't go on keeping them in your bedroom, without the necessary precautions. Who is Bastet, by the way?"

"My cat. Perhaps you'll see her around."

Bill smiled at her. "Bastet. Egyptian goddess of cats and protection, amongst other things. A big name for a cat."

"Don't say that in her presence, she is easily offended," Cassiopeia warned him, before she showed the Curse Breaker the way to her room on the second floor. She could see him eye the heads off the former Black house-elves next to the stairs warily.

"We've got to thank one of my great-aunts for that particular tradition. Once I've figured out how to get rid of them, I will throw them out," she explained. Somehow, she felt the need to distance herself from the brutality of her family, that seemed to disgust the Curse Breaker. "First door on the right is my room. They are in the boxes on top of the desk. I will be there shortly. Oh, and ignore the mirrors."

* * *

The search for her brother led Cassiopeia to the garden, where Sirius was feeding Buckbeak. The hippogriff greedily snatched the dead animals that were offered. When she got closer, Cassiopeia noticed the unhappy look on the Animagus' face.

"What's the matter?" she asked him, giving the hippogriff a respectful bow, waiting until he bowed too, before going closer. There was no need to make Buckbeak fear for his food, since it was definitely not on the list of Cassiopeia's favorite dishes.

"It's full moon tonight. Moony will be alone," Sirius explained, throwing another furry something for the hippogriff to catch.

The Hit Witch had to smile. Perhaps there was no need to worry about leaving her brother alone.

"Why don't you go to him and join him for a midnight run?" Cassiopeia suggested. "Then he doesn't have to be alone."

Sirius shrugged sadly. "Dumbledore says it's not safe for me to be outside. Thanks to that rat, Voldemort knows about my animagus form, so my disguise is useless."

"No wizard in their right mind would go near a werewolf during full moon. Besides, you've got a wand now. You can defend yourself. I've heard you used to be quite good at dueling. And, why don't you take him to the lodge? You remember the families hunting lodge Grandfather used to talk about? Miles of forest around in any direction. It might be a bit dirty, since it hasn't been in use for more than a century..."

Sirius grabbed her shoulders and shook her happily. "You are a genius. I can apparate us there, and Moony won't have to worry about biting someone without the Wolfsbane."

"See, there is always a solution. You just have to ask a Slytherin. Once he turns back, bring Remus here. There is enough room for him to live here, as well and it is safer than anywhere else."

_Plus he can keep you from doing stupid things while I am at work_, the Hit Witch silently added. _Professor McGonagall always said he was the most reasonable of you all._

"You wouldn't mind having a werewolf around?"

Cassiopeia shook her head fondly. "He is your friend and, as far as I remember from my DADA classes, werewolves are only dangerous during the full moon. He can use the lodge, during that time. I don't see a problem."

"You are the best sister in the world," Sirius exclaimed, hugging her tight.

Cassiopeia had expected her brother to express a need to leave the house, sooner or later. After being confined to a cell in Askaban for so long, he needed to spent time outside, needed the fresh air and the plants. The garden helped somewhat. Sirius always seemed happier after he had been outside to visit Buckbeak.

The witch wasn't as worried as Dumbledore for her brother. Safety had to be a top priority, yes, but, as long as he stayed away from crowded places, why shouldn't he be allowed to enjoy the nature for a while? It wasn't as if the Death Eaters main concern was hunting down every single shaggy, black dog. Should someone truly recognize him, there were ways to escape.

She also knew, she could trust Sirius to come back to Grimmauld Place, so she wouldn't have to go looking for him again. By allowing Remus Lupin to live in the house as well, she had made sure of that.

"Here, take this," Cassiopeia said, taking a bracelet from her wrist and handing it to her brother. "It's a Portkey. It will take you directly to my flat once you activate it. Just in case. It's better than apparating anywhere near here. We don't need Death Eaters loitering around the street."

Sirius took the silver bracelet warily. "This looks far to girly for me to wear," he complained. "But thank you. I might just try this out. Find out what my sister's flat looks like and what she is hiding from her brother."

"Sirius!" Cassiopeia scolded, laughing. She did not fear her brother searching her flat. He would not find anything interesting in there. She rarely spent time at that place anyway, only going there to sleep and eat, having let the job dictate her life for the last five years. Thus, her social life was nonexistent. "I said emergency use! I _will_ know if you enter my flat."

"You're no fun, sister," the wizard pouted.

"You brash lions just don't understand the sophisticated humor of a snake. Here, so you can take Remus back home. Burn it, once he read it."

The witch handed her brother a note with the address, so that the werewolf would be able to enter the house once the full moon was over. Sirius gave his sister another hug, before running off to find Remus Lupin and take him to the hunting lodge.

Cassiopeia was left in the garden to stare after him. After living under the same roof for just three days, she had learned, that her brother was sometimes little more than a child in a grownup's body. Perhaps joking around was his way to keep thought about Askaban far away. If it worked, Cassiopeia was willing to endure some pranks and bad jokes.

The only time he actually behaved like the responsible adult he should be, was when he talked about Harry. Making sure the boy had a better childhood than he had and, mostly, keeping him safe were more important to him than proofing his innocence.

Buckbeak nudging her shoulder, requesting more food, made her focus again. The witch gave the dead animals in a sack a disgusted look and decided to levitate them, instead of touching. The smell was simply revolting and there was no chance she got any nearer to the dead ferrets than strictly necessary.

After she finished feeding the hippogriff, Cassiopeia hurried upstairs, back to her room and Bill, wondering if everything was still intact or if the Curse Breaker had somehow managed to set off one of the curses. He may be trained to handle such things but the Black family had always been good for a nasty hidden surprise, so one could never be sure.

* * *

Inside the bedroom, the redhead was leaning over her desk, poking at an item inside a box with his wand, a concentrated look on his face. Bastet was sitting in between the boxes, watching the wizard carefully.

"Ah, I see you met Bastet already. What are you looking at?" Cassiopeia asked the Curse Breaker, before going around him, to get a closer look at what he was doing. Leaning over his shoulder was out of question, since he was so much taller than her. Her size had annoyed the witch all of her live. She was the smallest of all Blacks and her five feet three were towered above by almost everyone else as well. It did make ducking and hiding behind things easier though and that was a big advantage during duels.

"This snuff box has sunk its teeth into that book. I am trying to separate them, preferably without touching whatever this white substance is," Bill said, never taking his eyes off the box. It jostled slightly when he moved his wand.

"Ah, the silver snuff box. It belonged to my grandfather, as far as I know. The powder is wartcap powder, annoying, but not deadly." Cassiopeia began petting the cat as she watched the Curse Breaker work. Bastet purred and nudged the witch's hand, whenever her owner's attention seemed to stray.

"A snuff box full of wartcap powder. What in Merlin's name do you need that for?" Bill wondered, before his face went pale. "Wait, on second thought, don't tell me, I don't even want to know."

Cassiopeia laughed. "The snuff box is quite harmless, actually. The music box is horrible. It's charmed to make you fall asleep. Great if the children are too stubborn to go to bed but if no one closes it, they will sleep forever."

She had only ever heard the box play once, when she had curiously opened it as a four year old child. Her father had found her and managed to shut it before succumbing to sleep himself and since that day, it had been kept in a locked drawer in her parents' bedroom.

The Curse Breaker had finally manages to separate the book and the snuffbox, though, by the looks of it, the book had not escaped unscathed. There were bits of paper flying around and the cover of the book started to look like bark, bit by bit.

"Interesting reaction. I was not aware wartcap powder could do that inanimate objects," Bill wondered, before closing the box. "What else do we have here?"

"There is a ring somewhere in that box over there. Gold with a big sapphire. It eats your flesh, if you put it on. I think a scorned wizard sent that to one of my great-aunts, a long time ago. She was terribly vain and loved expensive jewelry. Of course, she put the ring on the minute she received it. Her hand never looked the same afterwards."

Bill stared at her incredulously. "A flesh eating ring? Am I happy Mum and Dad don't have such things at the house. With so many children around, especially the twins, there would have been a lot of injuries."

Cassiopeia shrugged, "You learn to be very careful. Not all of my paranoia stems from my job. As a small child, I was once almost strangled by a set of robes, in a closet in one of the guestrooms. Experience is a brutal teacher."

She absentmindedly rubbed her neck. There was still a faint scar, where a clasp had cut her that day.

_"She was not so pretty anymore, when one of her hands was nothing but bones."_

_"Shut up. The poor thing was devastated afterwards. It is not nice to make fun of her."_

_"Well, she did spent less time in front of us. I found it particularly annoying, when she put that cloth over us. I could not see anything for years!"_

"What is that?" Bill asked the Hit Witch, looking around the room.

"That are the mirrors I warned you about. That over there is left, the other one is right. Don't ask me why left is right and right is left, I did not name them. They've been in the family for decades. The oldest female child with the name Black gets them as a gift for her tenth birthday. Left is a bit mean sometimes and right has a soft heart," Cassiopeia started to explain.

_"I am not mean! I simply state the truth! And you should tame that chaos you call hair, before you speak to me!"_

_"You look beautiful, like always, young lady. Ignore left. He has no taste."_

Bill looked from one mirror to the other. "And I thought the talking mirror at our home was trying. How can you stand having those in your room?"

"You get used to it. If their squabbling gets too annoying, I silence them. They are actually some of the bewitched items I like in this house. They can be insulting but there is no physical damage involved. Like, for example, take the meerschaum pipe? It's in the blue box over there," the witch said, indicating at an ornate pipe with her wand. You could see it had not been smoked very often, since it had not started changing its color.

"Try smoking that and it will burn all the hair off your head."

_"It would have been a great look on him! We were still hanging in the drawing room back then and he -"_

"Left, shut up before I make you! Anyway, the pipe was given to Phineas Nigellus anonymously, after he expelled a pureblood child from Hogwarts because it had seriously hurt another student on purpose. He never smoked it, though, because he noticed the curse. I have no idea why it was kept, perhaps as evidence, should the family try again... Anyway, is there something I can help you with, or should I start looking for new items on the ground floor?"

Bill surveyed the boxes around him for a moment. "I am almost done here. You sorted the boxes quite well. Now that I separated the book and the snuff box, none of the curses should interact. I just need to place some protective wards to keep them save, until we can bring them to Gringotts. Oh, and by the way, Mum is looking forward to seeing you this evening."

_"You are going out this evening? Oh, you need to wear a pretty dress. How about a dark green or perhaps midnight blue... yes blue it is -"_

"Right, please, not now," the witch said, raising an eyebrow at the Curse Breaker. "You notified her without truly knowing if I could come with you?"

The wizard gave her a lopsided grin. "I was sure you would."

Shaking her head at his confidence, Cassiopeia silently waited for Bill to finish. Knowing the curses on the objects were contained would make sleeping in the room tonight far easier. If it weren't for Kreacher, she would have stored the objects in another room, but her own room was the only place she could be sure the house-elf would never remove any object from.

* * *

On the ground floor, Cassiopeia immediately asked Bill to take a look at the permanent sticking charm that held her mother's portrait in place. The Curse Breaker spent ten minutes, checking on the charm. To her chagrin, he deemed it to be exactly what it said - permanent.

Well, the door to the ground floor living room had always been small. Perhaps it was time to remove a piece of wall and create a new door? Knowing her mother, she had probably found a way to make the wand a permanent fixture of the house, too. Trying couldn't hurt though - unless it made the house collapse on top of her. Perhaps she should wait for someone with actual skills at do-it-yourself or knowledge of spells that could keep the house up - even if it was missing a supporting wall.

The kitchen, being almost solely Kreacher's territory, was free of any dangers. Even Walburga Black would never have risked her meals by placing cursed items there. Acquiring a new house-elf was often an annoying procedure and having one, that was angry at you, was dangerous. You could trust those annoying creatures to find loop-holes in every order you gave, just like Kreacher did with Sirius.

Thankfully, that left them with only the entrance hall, the corridor, the ground floor living room and the dining room.

The entrance hall had few places where anything could be stored, as did the corridor. In the dining room, there were also no dangerous objects but there were a lot of spiders living in various pieces of furniture. Cassiopeia decided to ignore the room for now. The spiders were not dangerous, so they could be dealt with sometime else.

The living room, on the other hand was quite vast and held more than a few suspicious objects, although - or, perhaps because - it was being only used to entertain guests. The family had always spent their time in the drawing room on the first floor.

The room was kept in surprisingly light colors, beige and silver being prominent amongst them. Compared to the other rooms of the house, it was quite cheerful. Her father had once told her, it was done this way to make important guests feel comfortable. You could not choose a Minister's or Head of Department's blood-status but contacts needed to be well cultivated. Pretending to be not as dark as the family was, helped to gain the favor of light witches and wizards.

* * *

Searching for any dangerous items was the easy part. Bill, with his experience with ancient tombs in Egypt, had little trouble finding curses. Cassiopeia had a bit more trouble but her familiarity with the magic of the house helped. She could feel the darkness of the curses, even above the general darkness of the house. Where , the Curse Breaker simply stood in the middle of the room, locating for the curses from there, Cassiopeia had to walk through the room and investigate everything piece by piece.

Some of the items that they could not find through their magical signature, gave themselves away, mostly by moving unnaturally. Cassiopeia was quite sure sugar tongs were not supposed to jump, once someone got near them. Though, trying to put sugar in your tea with them could be entertaining. It looked like something her great-aunt Cassiopeia, the woman she was named after, had owned.

The search in total did not take more than two hours, but removing and, in some cases, catching the items occupied them the whole day. Especially the sugar tongs had kept them running around, trying to corner them, since a simple _accio_ did not work. The Hit Witch had silently cursed whatever relative had been the one to create that little menace.

All the while, Bill told stories about his adventures in Egypt, about treasures he found and curses he had to break and Cassiopeia listened attentively. The last, and only, time she had truly been out of the country had been during her training, somewhere in the rain forest in South America. Bill's detailed descriptions of desert sunrises, the dry heat, the smell of spices on a bazaar and the people fascinated her.

Once or twice, Bill had asked questions about her job as well, but she could not tell him too much. Most of her work was confidential. The names and crimes of those she had hunted were widely known, but often the circumstances of their arrest were to remain secret. The only things she could tell him about were paperwork and the injuries she had sustained during her work.

Fortunately, the number of those wasn't too big. A couple of broken bones the healers had mended within seconds, the spell, that had knocked her trough a wall and two really nasty curses that had kept her in St. Mungo's for a while.

The remnants of the spell she had gotten hit with after her wand was damaged while she flew through the wall still bugged her sometimes. The wound above her left hip had not fully healed yet and pain shot through it in irregular intervals. The healers had suggested she should take some time off, until it was fully healed, but since they could not tell her how long that would take - they weren't even sure what she had been hit with - she had declined.

The time flew while they were working, stopping only for a couple of sandwiches for lunch. About half past five, Bill ushered Cassiopeia, who was still wondering how it had gotten that late so quickly, out of the door and apparated them to the Burrow.


	8. Nine redheads and a Black

Cassiopeia had never been to the Weasleys' home before. Charlie had described the building to her once, when he had talked about flying during the summer holidays, but nothing came even close to seeing the house.

The magic, that held up the crooked building, had to be powerful and the caster very talented. Despite its, in Cassiopeia's opinion, strange architecture, it gave off a feeling of welcome, something every other magical household she had visited had lacked.

The Hit Witch had not visited many magical households in her life. Her Uncle Cygnus' house, where her three cousins had lived and later the Lestranges' and the Malfoys' home. All of those families had been dark, wealthy and ancient - and had been proud to display it. Appearance was the most important thing in that social circle. Anybody, who had been to Malfoy Manor, had seen the blatant display of wealth and the family history through the dozens of portraits in the rooms. Crooked chimneys or walls of two floors being painted in different colors were things, that would never be seen there.

The only reason Number 12, Grimmauld Place looked the way it looked now was, that Cassiopeia had completely neglected the house after her mother's death. She had merely ordered Kreacher to keep the place up, which he, obviously, hadn't managed to do.

A chicken clucked, as it walked past them and behind a plant, two small garden gnomes watched the newcomers. Cassiopeia had only ever seen garden gnomes on pictures in her Care for Magical Creatures book and made a step towards them, to observe them more closely.

"That's just some gnomes. Don't mind them. Mum has us de-gnome the garden as punishment sometimes, but it never works. The keep coming back after an hour or so. Come on. Mum said we'll eat outside, so they will be at the back of the house," Bill said, grabbing Cassiopeia's hand and dragging her through the garden.

The witch didn't complain, since it gave her the time to look around some more, without having to watch were Bill went.

There were vast fields around the house, and Cassiopeia could imagine Charlie and his brothers flying over them, playing Quidditch with charmed apples, as he had once told her.

One of the windows on the ground floor was open and the smell of several kinds of food made its way into the witch's nose. If it tasted as good as it smelled... perhaps she could convince Kreacher to trade recipes with Mrs. Weasley?

Cooking was something Cassiopeia had never learned. It had never been necessary. Now, if she didn't eat at work, she went to one of the Muggle restaurants around the corner of her flat. Since she never had any guests, it worked. Her mother would probably have a heart attack, if she could see her only daughter having dinner amongst a dozen Muggles but the Hit Witch didn't care. As long as the food was eatable, it was alright with her.

The voices of the Weasleys could be heard before they were in sight. Apparently, something funny had happened, since she could hear Charlie's booming laughter and a girl's indignant yelling.

"Oh dear. The twins are probably testing their products again," Bill sight. "We better be careful."

"Products?" Judging by what she could see from Bill's facial expression, those 'products' were questionable, at least.

"They want to open a joke shop once they finished Hogwarts. They have been inventing items for years. Fake wands, that turn into plastic animals if you touch them, sweets, that make your tongue grow and so on. My advice, never leave your wand unattended and never, ever take anything they offer you. Family and friends are their preferred guinea pigs," the wizard explained.

"My wand is never unattended. Rule number one: always have your wand ready at hand. When I don't use it, it's in the holster," Cassiopeia reassured Bill. Those twins seemed to be real pranksters. The witch could just hope, they never met her brother. From what she had heard from the Professors at Hogwarts, he and his group of friends had been the worst pranksters in the entire school history - until the Weasley twins. If they ever planned a prank together...

The group of redheads came in sight, once they rounded the corner. Two large tables had been brought outside and Mr. Weasley and one of his sons, Percy, from what Cassiopeia remembered about him, were sitting on chairs around them, talking. Two other boys, the twins, were standing in front of a girl, Ginny. The young witch gesticulated wildly, pointing at her brothers angrily. Mrs. Weasley, Charlie and Ron were nowhere in sight.

"If you dare to touch my things ever again! You wait until we are back at Hogwarts! Then you will be on the receiving end of my wand!" Ginny shouted at her brothers, who were laughing at her.

"Bill!" Mrs. Weasley's shout from the house made everybody notice the two newcomers and Bill, walking over to his mother, finally let go of the Hit Witch's hand.

A bowl of salad, barely landing on the table, was the only warning Cassiopeia got, before she was enveloped in a bone crushing hug.

"Peia! I didn't know you would be here today!" Charlie said, spinning her around happily.

"Hello Charlie!" she managed to press out, her lungs to constricted to work properly.

"Let the girl breath!" Mrs. Weasley chastised her son, once she had let go of Bill. "It's so nice to have you here, Cassiopeia dear. I was a bit surprised when Bill told me he would bring another guest, but I am glad you are here. I really need to thank you for what you did during the Third Task. We were all so worried about Harry..."

Molly Weasley pried her son of the Hit Witch and gave her a hug of her own. "I am so happy Bill finally brought a nice witch back home. It's about time..."

Cassiopeia blinked owlishly, before giving the Curse Breaker a questioning look.

_"Brought a nice witch back home?!"_ she mouthed at him. Bill stared back at her, mouth open, clearly as confused as her.

"Eh? Mum?" he began, but the Weasley matriarch did not give him a chance to say anything more.

"Now, don't be embarrassed, Bill. Your father and I were young too, once and your siblings are old enough to understand about love. Well, Ginny is a bit young perhaps -"

"Mum!" the girl in question protested.

"Don't worry, dear. Once you're old enough, you will find your Prince Charming, too. Of course," she turned back to Bill. "Bringing someone back home after just two weeks is a bit fast, but I remember how your father and I were. Sneaking out of the dormitory at night -"

"Mum!" This time it was Ron, who protested. "We don't want to hear about that!"

His siblings nodded enthusiastically. Bill, Cassiopeia noticed, had flushed to the roots of his hair.

"Don't mind them, Billy," his mother said, patting him on the cheek. "Once they grow up, they will notice how important romance is. A moonshine walk in the flower gardens can melt any girl's heart. Of course you treat her right, don't you? I will not have any son of mine behave like anything else than the perfect gentleman!"

Bill slightly cowered away from his mother's raised finger. If she hadn't been so embarrassed herself, Cassiopeia would have giggled at his predicament. Charlie, of course, had no such problem and snickered, stopping only after the Hit Witch hit him over the head.

"Ow!" the Dragon Tamer complained. "No need to take your job so literally!"

"Go help your brother, or I'll tell your mother about the time you snuck out of the tower and went to the lake to - hmpf -"

Charlie clasped his hand over her mouth. "Not so loud for Godric's sake! Someone might overhear you!" he hissed. "I'll go! Bloody snake!"

Grumbling, he went over to his mother and older brother.

"Don't worry too much about Mum. She'll get it, eventually," Ginny said, appearing next to her. "She is just desperate for grandchildren, since more and more of her own children leave the house every year."

"Grandchildren?" Cassiopeia echoed, feeling vaguely sick. She had turned twenty three not too long ago and children of her own were something she hadn't planned for some time yet. There were so many things that had to be done first. Discussing children, even if, or especially if the relationship they should be produced from, did not exist, was not something she was keen on.

"We'll try to keep you busy, so she can only go after Bill. He deserves it, for making his message so ambiguous," Ginny promised.

"Ambiguous?" Cassiopeia asked, looking at the girl curiously. "Why was his message ambiguous?"

"I was there when Mum got his message. I didn't know you could use a patronus to deliver messages. It said _I'll bring Cassiopeia with me for dinner - tell the twins to behave! I don't want them to scare her away_. Then he came here, holding your hand. Perhaps the fact that his patronus is a snake - a _snake_, can you believe that? - played a part as well."

Thinking back about Bill's story about the Egyptian cobra, Cassiopeia had to laugh at the situation. "I'm afraid, I don't have anything to do with the snake patronus. The fang your brother has as an earring, belonged to an Egyptian cobra. It's kind of his good luck charm, perhaps that's why the animal he feels safest with is a snake."

Ginny laughed. "You try telling that my mother!"

"What made you think we aren't a couple?"

"Your facial expression when Mum said she was happy Bill brought a nice witch home. I think, it was the first time I saw a Slytherin with anything else than the perfectly indifferent mask. You looked like a combination between a startled rabbit and Errol, our owl, trying to land. At least you looked better than Bill. He simply looked like a stranded fish."

The two witches watched as Bill tried to talk to his Mum but she did not seem to give him a chance to explain. Charlie interjected at one occasion, pulling Bill aside and whispering something to him, before patting him on the back and going to the table.

"Why do you know how Bill got his earring?" Ginny asked after a moment.

"He told me. Why do you ask?"

The younger witch snorted. "He certainly never told us about it. When we asked, he said something vague about a birthday present and changed the topic."

Grumbling to herself, Ginny made to go back to the table, but Cassiopeia grabbed her shoulder.

"One more thing, Ginny. While it is true, that revenge is a dish best served cold, you should never postpone the cursing. Once they think they are off the hook, you strike back," Cassiopeia told the girl in a conspiratorial tone, but making sure the twins could hear her.

"But I'm not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts yet," the girl objected.

Cassiopeia snorted. Gryffindors. There were _so_ many ways around that rule. "The Ministry can't detect whether you, your parents or one of your siblings casts magic here. As long as you stay around the house, there is no risk. If you want to be extra thorough, you can use the wand of one of your older siblings, so there is no chance to trace it back. If you don't want to break any rules, you can always ask someone else to do the cursing for you. I'm sure Bill knows some nasty spells and I'm not that bad myself, if I may say so. There are some nice curses I picked up over the last few years. Quite funny - at least for the caster."

She let her wand shoot out of its holster and twirled it around. The twins eyed the wand warily, before identical grins spread over their faces. Cassiopeia smirked back. "Are you sure you want to play with a Slytherin? Some of us can be quite devious. Just ask your older brothers."

Fred and George looked at each other.

"I think -"

" - we like her. - "

"You can - "

" - keep her, Bill!"

Their speech pattern astonished Cassiopeia. They needed to be perfectly in tune with each other, to be able to complete the others' sentences.

"Not you, too!" Bill, who was by now leaning over the Hit Witch's shoulder, complained. "This way, Mum will never stop believing Peia's my girlfriend. I wonder what gave her that idea... What were you four doing, anyway?"

"I was teaching your sister the Slytherin ways. It is never too late to turn onto the right path." Cassiopeia gave Bill a short look over her shoulder, before deciding to let him stew a bit longer. She could survive being a bit embarrassed for the evening. Bill, on the other hand would have to suffer for much, much longer. That prospect held far more entertainment than simply clarifying things herself. Plus, Ginny had promised to keep Molly Weasley away from her. "Anyway, I think I know what gave her the idea."

"It's your own fault," Ginny added with a grin.

Bill looked from the Hit Witch to his sister. "What did I do?"

"Now, now, William. Why would I give away all of the good secrets?" Cassiopeia smirked at him. "I'm a Slytherin. We rarely do things out of the goodness of our hearts. And, if you'd excuse me now. I'd like to talk to Charlie."

* * *

When Cassiopeia took the seat next to the Dragon Tamer, Molly Weasley immediately shooed Ron away from the chair on her other side, forcing Bill to sit down there.

"Let your brother sit next to his girlfriend, Ron. When your father and I were younger, we liked to steal food from each others' plates and play footsies under the table."

Cassiopeia choked on the pumpkin juice she was sipping, while the Weasley children made various noises of disgust.

"Come on, Bill, give the girl some stew. She needs a bit more meet on her bones. At least, you don't have those dark circles under your eyes anymore, dear. This job of yours seems to be so exhausting and dangerous. How do you plan to do this, once you have a family? Will you quit your job? Bill could easily afford a family solely on his income."

"Huh?" was Cassiopeia's intelligent answer, while her brain was trying to process what she had just heard.

"Mum! Please, could you - "

"Molly, dear. Leave them alone for a minute. Don't you think it's a bit early for planning children?" Arthur Weasley interrupted him, patting one of his wife's hands.

"Of course. Eat, all of you! There is pie as desert."

Charlie used the time to involve Cassiopeia in a conversation about the dragons he worked with. The witch was glad for the distraction, since it saved her from further embarrassing conversations with Molly Weasley.

The Dragon Tamer showed her a burn scar on one of his arms. "That was a Norwegian Ridgeback. Her name is Norberta. Well, Hagrid named her Norbert, thinking she was a boy. She wasn't too pleased when I tried to free her of her bindings and told her to be a good boy and keep still. Good thing she was still so small, otherwise the scarring would have been much worse."

Cassiopeia traced the scar with one finger. It didn't seem to bad now but the witch knew how good the healers usually were. If there was such a big scar left, the injury must have been far worse than the Dragon Tamer let on. Perhaps he was trying to play it down, since his mother was listening in on their conversation.

"Why in Merlin's name did Hagrid have a Norwegian Ridgeback? They're not native here, are they? Did the dragon simply fall out of the sky?"

Charlie laughed. "No, I don't think I ever heard of a dragon falling out of the sky. If you want the whole story, you should ask Ron. He wrote me about the dragon. Asked me to sent someone to pick up a baby Ridgeback. I didn't believe my eyes when I read the letter."

"I think I will ask Ron about that -"

"Some more mashed potatoes?" Bill offered, leaning over to Cassiopeia.

"Of course," she said, taking the bowl from him. "By the way, your behavior gives your mother all the more reason to believe we are a couple."

"If I don't behave like the perfect gentleman, my mother will curse me six ways to Sunday."

Cassiopeia peered at Molly Weasley, who was indeed studying her eldest sons every move with hawk eyes. She thought for a moment, before deciding to annoy Bill a bit. "So, whatever I do, you will be perfectly polite?" she asked, before stealing a piece of carrot from Bill's plate.

"Even now?" she asked, munching happily on the vegetable. Carrots had always been her favorites. Mrs. Weasley, she noted, was watching her antics happily.

Bill's only reaction was to collect all of the carrots on his plate and put them on one side. "Here, you can have all of them."

"He doesn't like carrots," Charlie whispered. "He's glad if you eat them. Mum won't nag him about eating more vegetables then."

"Who doesn't like carrots?" the witch wondered, before picking another one off of Bill's plate. If he offered, she sure wasn't going to complain.

Pretending to reach over the table to grab the pot of stew, Charlie told Cassiopeia: "I think Mum's already planning the wedding after that display. You should have seen her face when Bill offered you his carrots."

"Now you just have to make sure you're unavailable for any conversation about weddings and children," Ginny whispered from Charlie's other side. "Then Bill will have to suffer through all of Mum's fussing - and the rest of us can have a quiet evening."

Cassiopeia gave the young witch an inquisitive look: "Are you sure the Sorting Hat placed you in the correct house? That is a terrible Slytherin plan of you!"

"Then you should approve of it," Ginny grinned and Cassiopeia couldn't really argue with that. "Bill said you were Chaser at Hogwarts? Would you mind flying with me after dinner? - We could take Charlie with us, as well," the redheaded girl added, as an afterthought.

"I would hope so!" Charlie said. "You still owe me a race, Peia. I won the Quidditch Cup in my last year. It's been four years since then."

"Ah, yes, I remember saying something about a race," the witch said in an offhanded manner. In truth, she could remember the promise in detail. She had given it after her graduation ceremony, wanting Charlie to have a reason to give his best during games, even if there was no more competition between them.

She had meant to keep it right after he finished school, but she had been in training camp in South America. When she had finally returned to England, Charlie had already left for Romania.

"You think you can beat _me_?" Cassiopeia taunted the Dragon Tamer.

"Don't cry, when you lose," he shot back.

"Aww, the last roar of the mighty lion, before his fall," she jested back. The teasing was part of their ritual. They had done so before every game they played against each other and whenever they flew together.

"Charlie, be nice to her!" his mother ordered.

_That is what she calls not being nice?_ Cassiopeia wondered. Apparently, the Weasley matriarch had forgotten who she was.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley. It will be a long, long time, before Charlie can best his teacher, when it comes to playing with words. After all, I had my family and all of Slytherin house to practice with," she said with a smirk.

"Yes, I was a perfectly good boy, before you corrupted me," Charlie interjected.

Cassiopeia stared at him, incredulously. "Have you forgotten how we met? I distinctively remember finding a fourth year lion outside, after curfew, during one of my first patrols as prefect."

"As I said, I was the perfect Gryffindor."

* * *

After fleeing as stealthily as possible to the broom shed, once everybody had finished their meal, Ginny, Charlie and Cassiopeia took off for a short flight. They did not have much daylight left, so they decided to use it good. Cassiopeia, though having her Nimbus 2001 with her, agreed to take one of the Weasleys' Cleansweeps, so the race would be fair.

They had Ginny play referee and Charlie won the race by a mere inch. While Charlie swooped through the air, Cassiopeia flew over to the girl, shaking her head at her friends behavior.

"Do you play Quidditch, as well?" she asked Ginny, constantly keeping an eye on Charlie and his antics.

"I play but I am not on the team. Fred and George are, though. They are both beaters."

Cassiopeia studied the girl on the broom for a moment. "Why don't you try out for the team, this year? You'll be a fourth-year, right? I started playing in my forth year."

"I don't know, the position of the keeper is still open..."

"I don't think, that is the right position for you to play. You are too small to cover all three of the hoops. Chaser or seeker would fit you better, I think."

Ginny snorted. "Gryffindor will not want for a seeker, as long as Harry Potter plays for the team. He' even better than Charlie."

Said wizard slowed down his broom and hovered next to the girls. "Hey, Peia!"

"What's it this time, Charlie?"

"Want to show us some of your stunts?" the wizard asked and Cassiopeia sighed. She honestly should have expected that.

"What stunts?" a curious Ginny asked.

"You can't tell me the school has already forgotten about Peia's victory stunts!" Charlie exclaimed, shocked. "They were famous!"

He started to explain about the stunts to his sister animatedly.

During the holidays between her fourth and fifth year, Cassiopeia had spent almost every free minute in the garden, to get away from her mother. Her father had passed away earlier that year, so there was no buffer between mother and daughter anymore. Since she didn't have anything better to do, she had started trying out different ways to fly a broom and later some stunts. Whenever Slytherin won a game, she had done a couple of them, to celebrate the victory. Especially the crazy stunts she had done, after they won the Quidditch Cup in her sixth year, had found many admirers.

"Will you show me? Please?" Ginny begged, giving the older witch her best puppy dog eyes. Charlie, noticing Cassiopeia's weakening resolve, joined her.

The Hit Witch laughed at their antics. "Fine, under two, no three conditions. First, everybody stays on the ground while do them. Second, you all promise me to never try such stunts without supervision and third, you have to convince your mother."

Giving each other a look, the siblings speed off towards the rest of their family, Cassiopeia following at a more sedate pace. It gave her the time to think about what stunts she could show on the broom. She had not practiced in years, so the more dangerous ones, that required perfect control over both body and broom were out of question. There was no need to break her neck.

When she arrived on the ground again, Molly Weasley was being assaulted by her children, begging her to let them see the stunts.

"That is far too dangerous! The things that could happen if she fell off..." the Weasley matriarch said.

"There are more than enough people here, capable of using magic to save her, should anything happen," Charlie tried to calm his mother.

"But I don't..."

"Mrs. Weasley, I have done these stunts before. I know when to stop. Besides, as I told Charlie and Ginny, I will only do them, if everybody promises not to try them on their own."

"Just Molly, dear. Are you sure about this. I know how my children can be. If you don't want to..."

Cassiopeia shook her head, laughing. "I'm no Gryffindor, don't worry about me. I do value my life, believe it or not. Charlie, hold the broom. I'm going to use my own, since I'm more familiar with that."

A minute later, Cassiopeia was speeding through the air, flying high, before spiraling down. Just before she would have hit the ground, she leveled it again, causing it to spin around. Laughing at the exhilarating speed, she let it continue for a moment, before stopping it. Deciding to do a more dangerous stunt than she had first planned on, she paused in the air for moment, turning her broom so she faced the Weasleys and speed up again. Making sure her grip on the broomstick was steady and in the middle, she lifted her body off the broom, doing a handstand.

She could hear Charlie whoop on the ground. Instead of sitting back down, she brought her feet on the broomstick and let go with her hands. Shortly in front of the Weasley family, she jumped off, landing in a curtsey and catching the broom with her wand hand. Her left hand shot to her hip, pressing on the curse wound, when a sudden pain flared through it.

"That was amazing, can you do that again?" Ron asked, the twins nodding enthusiastically at his side.

"Can you do other stunts as well?" Ginny questioned her.

"You dismounted the same way when you won the Quidditch Cup. You just left out some of the stuff in the middle," Charlie noted.

Bill, behaving like the gentleman his mother wanted him to be, went over to her and took the broom from her hand. Pretending to give her a kiss on the cheek, he asked: "Is everything alright? You are clutching your side. Did you hurt yourself?"

"It's just the wound I told you about. It's acting up again. Nothing to worry about," the witch hissed through clenched teeth, waiting for the pain to ebb off.

"Will you manage to walk to the living room?"

Cassiopeia wasn't so sure about that. Until now, the wound had only hurt while she was at home or at her desk at the Ministry. She never had to move there.

"I can try," she finally decided.

Bill turned back to his family. "I think that was enough stunts for one day. Let's go inside. I don't think my heart can stand watching another one of those crazy acrobatics today. There is barely light left, anyway."

His siblings made disappointed faces but complied. Only Percy decided it was time for him to go home, since he had much work to do at the Ministry.

* * *

I'm sorry for updating so late but I have the flu. If I made any terrible mistakes please tell me and I'll correct them once I feel better. Thanks again to all of the reviewers, I'm glad you like the story.


	9. An evening at the Burrow

You guys are really great with writing reviews. You make me smile every day. Thank you so much!

* * *

The living room of the Burrow was small. Furniture in all colors and designs had been placed in every available space, so there would be enough room for the whole family to sit. With a flicker of his wand, Arthur Weasley lit the fireplace and sat down on an armchair opposite of the loveseat Bill had placed Cassiopeia and himself on. The witch had not managed to walk all the way unaided, so Bill had placed an arm around her waist, to support her. Molly had cooed over the fact, that the two had gotten over their 'shyness' and acted like a couple before she had sat down onto another armchair and picked up some knitting.

Cassiopeia could remember the handmade sweaters the Weasleys had always worn after Christmas. Maybe not the prettiest gift but at least one given with love and that was more than she could say about the presents she had received from her own mother. Since Walburga Black had been in charge of all Christmas presents, there was never something amongst them, what the children really wished for, only things good purebloods should own or have read.

"You will show me the wound tomorrow. I am no Healer but perhaps I can figure out what curse was used. That could help speed up the recovery," Bill whispered, while putting his hand over her left, hiding her stark white knuckles. He knew how much his mother would fuss, should she find out the Hit Witch was injured. Molly Weasley meant well but her presence could be overbearing sometimes.

Cassiopeia inwardly squirmed a bit. The close body contact with Bill made her nervous. Her family had never been tactile, the obligatory hug at King's Cross on first of September the only contact she had with her mother all year. Her father had been a bit more generous with his hugs but he had died almost ten years ago. Strangely, she did not mind Bill's touch as much as she did when her colleagues put a hand on her shoulder or brushed her fingers when handing something over. Her skin underneath his hand tingled a bit but the feeling was pleasant.

"If your mother sends me an owl about wedding plans, I will tell her _you_ want to plan every detail," Cassiopeia grumbled after a while, once she had notices the Weasley matriarch's looks over her knitting. She could literally see the wedding invitations in her eyes.

_I don't envy the girls, that truly want to marry into the family one day,_ Cassiopeia thought._ They will need a lot of patience._

"Fine. But be aware, the decoration will be red and gold," Bill shot back, softly pulling on a strand of her hair.

"Bloody Gryffindor!"

While the twins and Ginny played Exploding Snap in front of the fireplace, Ron challenged Bill to a game of chess.

"Bill is the only one that doesn't lose within the first four moves," Ron explained. "You don't play chess by a chance?"

Cassiopeia shook her head. "No, sorry. Strategy is an important part of my job but I am pants at chess."

"You're too impatient to move one piece after the other," Charlie declared, plopping down on the floor, next to her feet. "You need them to move all at once."

"If you say so," Cassiopeia absentmindedly agreed, patting Charlie on the head with her free hand.

While Ron and Bill played chess, Cassiopeia and Charlie talked some more about the dragons he worked with. Like with Bill, she could not tell him much of what she had done, since she graduated. Most things, she was allowed to talk about, she had told him in the sporadic letters she had written, anyway. Charlie, on the other hand, had an seemingly endless reservoir of stories, ever though he had written about many things already. The letters from Romania had been far more frequent than her own and were neatly stacked in one of the drawers of her desk. The Dragon Tamer's vivid descriptions distracted the witch from the pain in her left side, until she did not notice it anymore.

After he had won the second game of the three they had played, Ron yawned and announced he would go to bed. His siblings stared at him confusedly, since he never was the first to go upstairs. Molly took the decision as a clue and sent all of the younger children upstairs.

With the extra motivation of Cassiopeia offering to lend Molly the cursed music box, the four went upstairs quickly.

"Would you mind warding the room, Bill?" the Hit Witch asked and the Curse Breaker, realizing what she wanted to talk about, complied, making sure not one word spoken in the room could be heard outside.

"Don't tell me you just hexed my youngest brother to make them all go to bed," he said, when he sat back down.

The witch flushed a little. "Sorry about that. It was just a small compulsion charm, nothing dangerous. I needed them out of the room."

Three Weasleys looked at her curiously, waiting for an explanation. Bill, knowing what this was about, made himself more comfortable.

"Has Dumbledore notified you yet about the new Headquarter?" Cassiopeia asked Molly and Arthur. The two looked at her for a moment, before realizing what she meant.

"He said he was looking into a place suggested but I have heard nothing since then," Arthur answered.

"I did not know you were a member of the Order, too," Molly said, giving her an inquisitive look.

"Not necessarily member, I would..."

"She stays around to keep a eye on her brother and to be up to date on all things _You-know-who_," Bill interrupted her.

"Yes, considering what is going on in the Ministry at the moment, I decided it was the wisest course of action. I don't remember to much about the last war, since my family rarely left the house after Reg was killed..." Cassiopeia trailed off. "What I do clearly remember is my mother's frightened voice, when my father told her, there were rumors _he_ was anywhere nearby. Anybody that manages to frighten my mother is someone I never want to meet - though I will probably not be able to avoid it..."

The last part was added in a soft voice, so nobody beside Bill could hear it.

"Yes. Imagining your mother to be afraid of something is simply..."

"Exactly," Cassiopeia agreed with Bill, a small shudder running through her body. Just the memory of her mother's frightened voice chilled her. The Curse Breaker pulled her into his side once more, rubbing a comforting hand up and down her arm.

"How do you know her mother, Bill? I thought Mrs. Black died some years ago," Molly Weasley asked, putting aside her knitting and watching them with furrowed eyebrows.

"She did. Four years ago, to be exact," Cassiopeia confirmed with a nod. "Actually, it'll soon be five..."

Molly gave them a strange look, before continuing with her questions. "If she is dead, how can Bill know her? Unless you...I would not be angry with you, Bill, if you had not told us about it, disappointed, yes but - "

"There is a portrait, at my family's house," Cassiopeia interrupted her. She was not sure what Molly was hinting at but Bill's tensing at her side compelled her to say something.

Apparently, what she said was not the right thing.

"At your house? Alone? Bill! I thought I raised you better than to..."

This time, the Hit Witch finally understood the innuendo. A faint blush crept up her cheeks. This was embarrassing. Deciding that watching Bill suffer was not at all worth this embarrassment, Cassiopeia wanted to clear up the misunderstanding.

"Molly, I think -"

"I was there with her, yesterday. Together with Professor Dumbledore and Sirius Black," Bill bet her to the draw, squeezing her hand. Wondering why Bill did not want her to illuminate the matter, she acquiesced.

"The home of my family will serve as headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix," Cassiopeia explained. "The Headmaster wanted to have Bill check on the wards my father put on the house. We put it under the Fidelius afterwards. It is now truly the safest house on the Isles, apart from Hogwarts."

Arthur nodded and Molly seemed relieved, whether that was because they had not been 'alone' in the house or because the headquarter was safe, Cassiopeia could not guess.

"Will it not be too crowded?" Mrs. Weasley wondered.

"Why should it? The house is more than big enough and the meetings will be limited to the ground floor. The other three floors are private for now. Later on, they may be used by those members of the Order, that need a safe place but right now, they are mostly uninhabitable."

"Uninhabitable?" Charlie asked. "Why uninhabitable?"

"No one's lived there in a while, not since my mother died. Had it not been for Sirius, I would never have returned. I ordered Kreacher, our house-elf, to keep the house up, should I ever be in need of a safe place but he did not manage to do so. I suspect my mother's portrait ordered him not to clean, until I return. She disapproved of the last true Black moving out of the ancestral home of the family. Anyway, some of the dust on the ground floor is gone by now but everywhere else, there are creatures inhabiting the rooms and dark objects laying around."

"The ground floor is more or less clean of those items," Bill added. "We worked the whole day on that and I think we managed to find everything."

"But once you got them out, someone could live there? It wouldn't bother you?" Molly asked, looking at Arthur.

"As I said, I actually don't live there anymore. I own a flat in Scotland, though I rarely spent time there. Minus the rooms my brother and I currently occupy, there are seven more bedrooms, though I would not want anybody to disturb Reg's old room. It has not been touched since his death. Minus the one Remus Lupin will use, there would be five unused bedrooms. Why do you ask?" Cassiopeia wondered, why the Weasley matriarch seemed to be so interested in this.

"Molly, you cannot truly think of leaving the Burrow," Arthur said to his wife, having guessed her line of thoughts. "This is our home!"

"It is our home, yes, but she said the wards of the house are the strongest all around," Molly objected. "Don't you want your children to be safe? People know our family supports Harry and everybody knows Ron is Harry's best friend. What about the times, when we are at a meeting? Who will protect the children? And what about Hermione? Her parents are Muggles and Hermione will be a target. They hate her kind and as Harry's friend..."

Cassiopeia watched silently, as the two argued. Molly was right, everybody that was friends with Harry Potter would be in danger. More so the muggle-born. Had Dumbledore thought about that? How was Hermione supposed to protect herself against a Death Eater attack? Even if she was the brightest witch of her age, she would not stand a chance against Death Eaters. They were ruthless.

The fingers of her left hand started drumming on her wound, both, because it itched and because moving helped to calm her nerves. Bill, whose hand was once more resting above hers, gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Dumbledore will have thought of something," Charlie said but he looked at his older brother, as if to seek his affirmation.

Cassiopeia sighed. "I have a feeling my house is this something." Pinching the bridge of her nose, she continued. "The house has to be inhabitable as soon as possible. I will have to take some more time off... No I can't, we are to understaffed and there is still..."

"Why don't we help you, dear? I stay at home anyway and the children could manually help with the cleaning...," Molly offered, smiling at the other witch.

"Mum! There are still dangerous objects around the house! It will take some time to locate all of them," Bill interjected, clearly worried.

"The you will have to work hard tomorrow, Bill. If Cassiopeia allows us, we will begin with the cleaning on Monday and move in as soon as possible."

Molly looked at Cassiopeia expectantly. The witch bit her lip, not sure if the risk was too big, or not. Ginny seemed to be sensible, as did Ron - to a certain degree - but the twins...

"I can talk to the twins," Charlie offered, guessing at her line of thought. "They love their jokes but they will understand this is not the right time."

The witch sighed. "Alright. I trust you on this, Charlie. Remus will be around as well and he can help, should you find anything dangerous. I am afraid I will have to wake up the children again, though. I need to tell them the address, otherwise they cannot enter."

"You are the secret keeper?" Arthur asked. "I would have thought Albus..."

The witch snorted. "It may be the Headquarter of his Order but it is _my _house."

"I will wake up the children," Molly said and left the room.

"Why did you volunteer your house, anyway?" Charlie wondered and Cassiopeia did not answer.

The Dragon Tamer nudged her leg with his shoulder. "Oh, come on, I'm sure you had a reason!"

Bill chuckled next to her.

"What are you chuckling about?" the witch asked him, narrowing her eyes. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Just the fact that you did not volunteer it at all."

"Really?" Charlie eagerly questioned his brother.

"How do you -?"

"Your brother told me, while you were busy with Dumbledore and the Fidelius," Bill said, while - wisely - scooting as far away from her, as the love seat would let him.

The Hit Witch glared daggers at him. "Don't you dare say a word, William!"

"She was outwitted by two Gryffindors," Bill stage whispered to his brother, who stared at Cassiopeia for a moment and then started laughing. The witch futilely pouted at him for a moment, before exerting her revenge and tickle Bill mercilessly. Charlie had once told her his oldest brother could be very ticklish, if one knew the right spots. Cassiopeia, being the Slytherin she was, had remembered every single one of them.

Bill started giggling uncontrollably the second her fingers found their target.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he forced out. "P-please, stop!"

"Let me think...No."

The witch continued, until Bill fell off the loveseat, his weight pulling her halfway off, as well.

"Eh?" Ron's tired voice could be heard from the door, his siblings behind him. Cassiopeia glared at Bill, before sitting back up.

"Bill was misbehaving," a laughing Charlie explained. "At least in her eyes. I found the information very interesting."

"Sorry we had to wake you, again. I had not planned on giving you this information today. Take a seat. And don't mind Bill. He will learn to watch his mouth, eventually," Cassiopeia said, gesturing for the children to come closer.

The four youngest Weasleys sat on the floor in front of her, Ginny sitting down conveniently right on Bill's stomach before he could get up.

"Ginny! What are you doing there? Let your brother get up off the floor," her mother chastised her.

The girl did not move one inch. "No. This is an educational measure. He annoyed Cassiopeia."

Said witch had to laugh at the girl's antics.

"Oi! I'm your brother, Ginny. You should support me, not her," Bill whined, trying to get his sister off his stomach.

"So? Peia is the only other girl here. I would like to keep her around," Ginny shot back, completely ignoring her brother's squirming.

"How much do they know about the Order?" Cassiopeia asked the parents, not sure where she should start and how much she could reveal.

"They know it exists and that the members used to fight against _You-know-who_ and will do so again," Arthur answered, looking at his children.

"Alright, then. The Order of the Phoenix recently found a new headquarter. The security of the house is excellent, not even the Dark Lord can break through the wards. Have any of you heard of the Fidelius charm, before?"

"You can hide the location of an house with it. No one can see the house, unless the secret keeper gives them the address."

Cassiopeia and the rest of the family gave Ron an astonished look and the young wizards ears turned a fiery red.

"What? Hermione explained it, once we found out Sirius was supposed to be the Potters' secret keeper. _You-know-who_ only found them, because Wormtail betrayed the secret," he mumbled, sounding embarrassed.

"Well, he is correct. The Fidelius charm is used to hide away a location in the soul of a person, the secret keeper. The same was done with the Headquarter of the Order," Cassiopeia continued her explanation. "Originally, I had planned to only give your parents the address, so they could go there for the meetings but I have changed my mind."

"So we will be allowed to go to the meetings as well?" one of the twins asked, hope shining in his eyes.

"Mum forbid us from joining the Order, even though we are seventeen," the other added.

"You are still too young to join!" Molly said in a determining voice. "None of you four will go to the meetings!"

"Being seventeen does not mean you are ready to face the dangers out there," Cassiopeia agreed. "There is a difference between what you learn at school and what truly happens out there. Believe me, I know. When I left Hogwarts with my O in DADA and all of the curses I had learned from my family, I thought I was prepared for the practical aptitude test. Well, I was not. Smythe wiped the floor with me. Didn't even take him more than a minute. It was embarrassing but a great way to set my head straight. There was so much I had to learn..."

"But you will be at the meetings?" Ginny asked her.

"I did not officially join the Order but I will attend the meetings - if I have the time. Sirius will have to tell me about the rest of them. But we digress. I don't want to keep you from your beds longer than strictly necessary. Does anyone have a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink at hand?"

Molly summoned the items from another room. "Why do you need them?"

"I will give you the address on parchment that will be burned afterwards. I will not risk someone overhearing it," the witch explained, while writing down the same text she had written for her brother, Dumbledore and Bill a days ago.

"Read, remember and pass it to the next person," she told Ginny, handing her the parchment. While the Weasleys passed the address around, Cassiopeia studied the full moon, wondering if Remus Lupin and her brother were having fun on their run. Two small shadows could be seen on the sky, illuminated by the moonlight. They were distinctively owl shaped and coming straight towards the burrow.

Charlie, waving the parchment in front of her nose, demanded her attention. Taking it back and setting it on fire with the tip of her wand, she brought the owls to the Weasleys' attention. Ron got up and opened a window for them.

The owls swooped in, one landing in front of Arthur Weasley, one in front of Cassiopeia.

* * *

_Dear Ms Black,_

_I thought it might interest you, that we have evidence of your brother hiding in Tibet. Perhaps we could meet for lunch on Monday, so you can tell me anything you know about connections he has to the country._

_Sincerely,_

_Kingsley Shacklebolt_

_PS: Do you have a copy of the file of the Twiggle case? I cannot find ours._

* * *

Cassiopeia stared at the post scriptum for a minute, before she finally got the hint.

"I really need to take some time off, I am getting to slow for the job," she grumbled quietly and put the tip of her wand on the paper. Whispering the spell necessary to reveal the hidden message, she watched, as new words bled onto the parchment. The handwriting was different than before but familiar.

* * *

_Dear Ms Black,_

_Kingsley assured me you would find this message and I hope he was right. Unfortunately, I will not be able to contact you again via letter. Cornelius is very thorough with his promise of suspending anyone who is in connection with me. I would like to hold the first meeting in the new Headquarter next Friday at eight p.m. I hope this does not inconvenience you but you need to contact all of the members, so they know the location. Snuffles will be able to give you all of the names._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

* * *

_Why did I insist on being the secret keeper? I knew Dumbledore agreed to give me the position far too easily, _she silently grumbled.

Molly and Arthur were still reading their letter.

"We need to get the girl as soon as possible. He is right, Arthur. She will be safer with us and once the Headquarter is inhabitable..."

"What's the letter about, Mum?" Charlie asked, trying to peer over her shoulder.

"Dumbledore asked us to pick up Hermione and let her stay with us, until the Headquarter is inhabitable, then she will stay there."

"But why can't she stay with us the whole time, Mum?" Ginny asked her mother. Molly sighed and gave all of her children a long look.

"We will be moving to the Headquarter as well, Ginny, dear. The Burrow is not save enough."

"We'll be moving out?" Ron asked, perplexed.

"We will -"

"- be moving into -"

"- the Black house?" the twins questioned.

"I'll leave you to explain that," Cassiopeia said, getting up from the loveseat. "It is getting late and there is much work to do in the house."

Molly looked at her, wide-eyed. "You cannot truly mean to work at this hour. It is almost midnight!"

The Hit Witch shrugged. "I'm used to working crazy hours. My office is understaffed, so we have to put in a lot of extra hours. Oh, if Dumbledore hasn't notified you in his letter, the first meeting will be Friday at eight."

"I'll be there at nine, tomorrow," Bill told her, getting up, since Ginny had finally relocated.

"Be there whenever you want to be. I'll leave the door unlocked, so you don't have to ring the doorbell. And, for Merlin's sake, be quiet in the entrance hall! I don't need to hear her screeching."

"I shall try."

* * *

After she had said goodnight to everybody, Bill escorted her outside, from where she could apparate home. They walked quietly next to each other, until they were out of earshot.

"I'm sorry my mother thinks we are a couple. I tried to tell her we weren't but once she gets an idea, it's difficult to convince her otherwise," the wizard apologized. "I really don't know where she got the idea from."

"I do," Cassiopeia grinned. "And I have to say, you did not try very hard to convince her."

Bill flushed. "Yes, well, I thought... well... you know, if she thinks I have a girlfriend, she would finally try to stop playing matchmaker...," he trailed off, looking on the ground, uncomfortable.

Cassiopeia shook her head at this obviously ill-conceived plan. Even Charlie's plans did not have as many holes. "You do realize she will bug you about engagements and weddings and children from now on? Why did you not simply invent a girlfriend. One you met in Egypt?"

"It wasn't the most elaborate plan and I realize I should have asked you first. But you played along so well... anyway, I couldn't invent someone. Mum would have suspected something, if I didn't bring her home with me... If you want to, I can go back inside and try to clarify everything..."

Bill's blue eyes were pleading for her not to make him do that and, going completely against her instincts, that screamed _'run while you can'_ Cassiopeia instead listened to the soft voice inside her head, telling her this would be good. "Fine, if it means so much to you, I will continue to play along. I owe you anyway, since you're helping me clean the house. We will have to be convincing, though. Your siblings - at least Charlie and Ginny - know we are no couple but we will have to convince everybody else. We cannot risk someone seeing us acting like anything else than a couple and telling your parents about it..."

"Peia, breath!" Bill interrupted her babbling. "This doesn't need to be planned out to the last detail. We take things as they come, ok? I am really grateful you are doing this. Believe me, I know my mother can be a hand full sometimes and I promise you can get out any time you like. If it gets too much, just 'dump' me. Just do whatever feels right for you. Act naturally."

This time, Cassiopeia blushed. No need to plan, just act naturally. It sounded great but it still left her with a very important question. How exactly did one act naturally in a relationship?

Shuffling a bit on the ground, she gathered up the courage and asked Bill. The Curse Breaker stared at her, wide-eyed.

"How you act...Peia! You are not honestly telling me you've never been in a relationship before?" he finally said.

"Well, I'm a Slytherin and a Black, not the most sought after qualities. It kind of limits one's choice to other Slytherins. There are not many people in the other houses interested in dating one of us... and with my mother alive, it could only be a pureblood. After Hogwarts, I spent so much time working..." she turned away from Bill, too embarrassed to look at him. Which twenty-three year old witch had never had a relationship - apart from her, of course.

"But... the whole school believed you were dating the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, that's why nobody ever had the courage to ask you out. And I know there were a few who wanted to."

Cassiopeia turned back and stared at Bill, her embarrassment momentarily forgotten. "Mulciber?! Everybody thought I was dating Mulciber? What in Salazar's name gave you all that idea? Mulciber, honestly? He is an arrogant, slimy, dimwitted -"

"He told everybody," Bill said, watching her outburst curiously. "So, you were not dating him?"

The witch glared at him, her normally pale face red with anger.

"I'll take that as a no then. Merlin, if I -" he interrupted himself. "Anyway, just behave like you did at dinner and everything will be alright. I will handle the rest. Don't worry too much."

* * *

I posted a short companion piece to the story. If you are interested in how Charlie got his burn mark, check it out. It's called Trouble With Pronouns.


	10. soaked Curse Breaker, confused Hit Witch

Don't worry too much, that's what Bill said. Of course, worrying was exactly what Cassiopeia had done the whole week. Why had she agreed? Why?! This was completely out of her comfort zone. There were no instructions she could follow, nor did she have any experience she could draw on. Why couldn't relationships have a handbook she could read and use as a guideline?!

Unfortunately, she had been called to the office on Sunday, because someone with Legilimency abilities was needed, so there had been no time to ask Bill any more questions.

Since there were not many other people she could have asked, Cassiopeia had to observe the behavior of couples to get the information she needed. This, of course, puzzled many people around her.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, for example, had been highly confused, when she had started to watch and analyze the behavior of couples during their lunch in the cafeteria and actually lost track of what he was telling her.

Nymphadora Tonks, who, to Cassiopeia's surprise, had joined the Order, had asked her, if she fancied her colleague Denbright. Apparently, she had been staring at him and his girlfriend, while she was supposed to give the other witch the address of the headquarter.

Her colleagues wondered since when she had the patience to listen to Ophelia Haywood's gushing over her fiancée. The woman could go on for ages, describing every little detail of a romantic picnic they had or a sweet gesture he made. Usually, everybody turned her out after the first few minutes but Cassiopeia had actually listened to the whole story for once.

In her desperation, she had actually gone to her brother and asked him what she should do. Since the Weasley family would be spending a lot of time in the house, he would find out about the 'relationship' sooner or later and Cassiopeia was quite sure her brother would not believe it. In some cases, he could be observant and the Hit Witch had the feeling this would be one of the cases. The only hole in her plan was, that she forgot about his personality.

Sirius had only laughed when she told him about the charade and his - not very helpful - advice had been to just snog Bill during the meeting and everybody would believe they are a couple. Cassiopeia had pouted and told him, as her brother, he had to give her serious advice. This comment had Sirius laugh so hard, she had eventually given up.

His suggestions did raise the question about kissing, though. If nobody ever saw them kissing, there would be suspicions sooner or later. Most of the couples she had observed, had kissed at some point or another. Sometimes as a hello or good-bye kiss but there were some kisses in between, she had not figured out yet. At the moment she truly regretted fleeing the dormitory whenever her fellow snakes had started to talk about boys. Back then, it had only seemed to interrupt her study time, which was limited anyway, since she had to squeeze Quidditch practice into her already full timetable as well. Right now, any information could be of use.

Did people expect her to greet her 'boyfriend' with a kiss? Would a kiss on the cheek be enough? These questions had her stand on the doorstep of her family home for almost five minutes, before she finally gathered up the courage to enter.

Cassiopeia had not been inside Number 12, Grimmauld place, since she left the house in a hurry early Sunday morning, barely remembering to leave a note for Bill, explaining why she wasn't there and permitting him to enter the Black family vault to place all of the cursed object in there. The Curse Breaker had sent her a short letter in return, telling her he had found another couple of items on the first floor and had brought everything to Gringotts and stored it away.

The entrance hall did not seem any different, well, perhaps it smelled less dusty. Her mother's portrait was still hanging there, much to her chagrin. She had secretly hoped Remus Lupin or Molly Weasley would have figured out a way to get rid of her. Probably it would boil down to removing the entire wall. Oh, well, if it got her rid of the portrait...

The door to the kitchen opened and the Weasley matriarch, wearing a bright blue apron with a flowery pattern, waved her over. Quietly, as to not wake up her mother, Cassiopeia went into the kitchen.

"Bill is not here yet, dear but I am sure he will not take long," Molly told her ushering her inside the room. Cassiopeia did not mind that at all. This only meant he would have to decide how to greet her and she could stop worrying for now.

In the kitchen were several members of the order gathered already, although it was only half past six. There were several pots on the oven and the delicious smell of Molly's cooking was all over the room.

"I had the children eat some sandwiches earlier but I thought many of the members come here directly after work and may not have had the chance to eat something... I hope you do not mind me using the kitchen. Sirius said it was alright, since that old house-elf refused to cook anything for us."

"Kreacher still refuses my brother's orders? I thought I made myself clear. Mhh.. he must have found a loophole... If you like, I can order Kreacher to cook and help you with the cleaning. I cannot guarantee he will not find another loophole but -"

Molly shook her head, declining the offer. "I don't think we will need his help. I like cooking, so it is no burden for me. Perhaps if you would order him to help with the dusting? The house is bigger than I expected and we are quite busy getting rid of some of the creatures that are inhabiting a couple of rooms."

"I will tell him after the meeting," Cassiopeia assured the other witch, before going over to her brother, who was talking to Tonks, Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Alastor Moody was watching them from a corner. He looked healthy for someone, who had spent almost a year inside a trunk, Cassiopeia noticed. A bit aside from the others sat Mundungus Fletcher, trying to lit his pipe.

Tracking him down to inform him about the new headquarter had been a pain. As soon as he had seen the Hit Witch, he had disapparated and Cassiopeia had to start looking for him, again. Which was annoying, since Mundungus Fletcher had quite a bit of experience avoiding the authorities. After they had played cat and mouse four times, the witch had lost her patience and shot a stunner at him from the behind. Not very honorably, perhaps, but she was no Gryffindor and neither did she have the time to continue hunting him down. There had been more people she had to - discreetly - meet to pass on the address of the Headquarter, while still doing her job.

Albeit, Cassiopeia had worked a lot less than usually the past week, since she was not allowed to do anything except paperwork. However much she usually liked to support her colleagues, especially those, that were injured, doing nothing but paperwork was, figuratively as well as literally, a pain in her backside and she grew bored qickly.

Molly eyed the pipe in Mundungus Fletchers hand. "I would prefer it, if you did mot smoke inside the kitchen," she told him.

The wizard looked up at the Weasley matriarch. "But, Molly -"

"No buts, Fletcher. No smoking _anywhere_ inside this house," Cassiopeia interrupted him. The weed he was trying to lit was foul looking and she was sure it did not smell any better. "And I mean it. I have no problem with finding some offence or another to ship you off to Askaban for a month or two. Actually, I think there is still an arrest warrant for you. The Aurors might be very thankful if I saved them the time they might spend on looking for you. Have I made myself clear?"

It was an empty threat, since Dumbledore had made it quite clear they needed Fletcher but as long as the shabby wizard did not know it...

"Crystal clear," Mundungus Fletcher agreed with a nod. Cassiopeia noticed his eyes flickering to all available exits for a moment and smirked. _Try to run away all you want. Sooner or later I will get you anyway_, she thought.

"Very good. Where are the children, Molly?"

"They are upstairs, actually. I was hoping we could stay here after the meeting - if it is alright with you and Bill says it's save enough. We've got quite a portion of the first floor cleared. It may be a bit crowded, since there are only three bedrooms inhabitable right now and we are seven, eight if you count Remus, maybe nine, if Bill stays as well... Charlie had to leave already but Hermione is staying with us, now."

Quickly calculating it, Cassiopeia realized there would not be enough space for them to comfortably share. Either, the twins, Ron, Remus and maybe Bill had to share one room, or Remus, Molly and Arthur. Neither seemed to be very comfortable for the werewolf. Ginny and Hermione were lucky, they would be the only ones in their room.

"Would you mind sharing your room with Remus until more bedrooms are cleared?" the witch asked her brother.

Giving his friend a once over, Sirius said: "No problem. I had to share a dorm room with him for seven years. A few more days won't matter."

"I guess I can manage to endure Sirius' snoring for a while," Remus Lupin agreed.

The Animagus gave his friend a wounded look. "I do not snore!"

The werewolf gave a longsuffering sigh. "Oh yes, you do, Padfoot. You do."

"Well, you must be..."

Cassiopeia ignored the two squabbling wizard and turned back to Molly. "Good. One room for you and Arthur, one for Ginny and Hermione and one for Ron and the twins. It will have to do for now, if that is alright with you, Molly."

The Weasley matriarch nodded. "We will need to clean another bedroom as soon as possible, so Ron can have his own room and share it with Harry, once he can leave his relatives' house. But what about Bill? He hasn't said anything about staying, since he was looking for a flat of his own but I doubt he will want to share a room with his brothers."

Sirius, who had stopped arguing with Remus and listened in on the witches' conversation, felt the need to contribute. "Bill can sleep in Peia's room, of course."

Cassiopeia blushed darkly, as Molly's eyes widened. Crooking her head, the Hit Witch gave Sirius an inquisitive look. Why did he make that comment? A couple did usually share a bed, yes, but she was far from comfortable with that and the Animagus knew this. On the other hand, the thought of Bill, sleeping alone at the Burrow made her feel queasy. It was dangerous and she did not want him to get hurt.

"No, no. Absolutely no. He will have to share with his brothers, then," Molly interrupted her thoughts. Sirius gave both women a look. "Peia is sleeping at her flat anyway - if she sleeps at all -, so her room is unoccupied. I'm sure she will be alright with Bill using her bed, while she isn't here."

"But this is not how..."

Silently planning revenge on her brother, Cassiopeia left Sirius and Molly to their discussion of appropriate sleeping arrangements and joined Mad-Eye in his corner. There she would at least be free from any innuendos and discussions of her - non-existent - love life.

"So you are actually a living human being with emotions," the ex-Auror greeted her, indicating at her red cheeks, his good eye conveying amusement.

Cassiopeia gave him a sour look. "Not you, too. Those two are enough. Why does everybody insist on poking their noses into my private live?"

Moody chuckled, his face losing some of his usual grimness. "That's what family does, tiny. They dissect every decision you make and try to convince you to do what they think is right for you," he said, his magical eye staring at the table. "I must admit, though, I was surprised to find out your brother was hiding in this house, when I came here."

"I thought Dumbledore had told you...," the witch answered, slightly surprised Sirius was still alive, if Mad-Eye had not known about him before.

"No, Albus said nothing. It was interesting, to see him sitting in the kitchen with Remus and Kingsley, chatting like schoolboys. Had Kingsley not been here, I may have done something but if the Auror responsible for his recapture did nothing..."

Cassiopeia turned back to the kitchen table, studying the dark skinned wizard. For someone, who had pestered her about Sirius' whereabouts for months, he really did look quite comfortable sitting next to him. "Well, you never know. I was quite surprised to hear Kingsley's newest lead on Sirius leads to Tibet..."

"Ah, yes, I heard about that as well. A little bird also told me you somehow got Rufus to have half of the office looking for evidence that your brother had a trial?"

The witch laughed. "I would hardy compare Nymphadora to a little bird but she is right, they are looking into that. I didn't do too much, though. I just tried to help Kingsley, when he questioned my on connections Sirius might have in Tibet. I suggested to get the records on Sirius' trial, so they could be checked on anything that has to do with Tibet, so Kingsley sent a note to the archives. He got a return note, telling him no records could be found. If that immediately caught Scrimgeor's attention, who may have been in the office when I talked to Kingsley and the Head Auror bustled off, intending to look into that himself, that's not my fault. Right now, much to Senior Undersecretary Umbridge's chagrin, half of the Auror office is busy trying to find someone, who had been present during the trial of Sirius Orion Black. Actually, you could say, it is all her merit, since she was the one, who insisted they should focus on my brother's case."

Mad-Eye shook his head with a fond smile. "You are still the sneaky little snake you were when we first met, aren't you?"

"What shall I say? This particular snake loves to outwit other Slytherins," Cassiopeia answered with an innocent grin.

Mad-Eye looked at her with his good eye, his magical eye fixed on something outside the room. It had never stopped to vex her, if the ex-Auror's eyes were watching two different things at once. Knowing there was something interesting outside and not being able to see it drove her up the walls. "Your lover boy has arrived. Perhaps you'd like to greet him?"

Cassiopeia sighed warily. His ability to see even trough walls always made her careful when he was anywhere in the same building as her. You could never be sure if he was watching you or not.

"Outside, I would be the only one who could watch...," Moody added so quietly, the witch had to strain her ears to understand him.

Giving him a surprised look, the Hit Witch tried to figure out, how he had seen through the act so quickly, without even seeing her and Bill interact. Mad-Eye raised an eyebrow in silent answer. Right, there was almost no way to fool the man. He was nothing, of not observant. Taking his advice, Cassiopeia hurriedly left the kitchen and went to the door.

* * *

Bill had just entered, looking soaked to the skin and leaving a small puddle of water on the floor. His, now partly see-through, shirt stuck to his upper body, giving Cassiopeia a clear view of the muscled torso and the witch had to fight down another blush.

"Where in Merlin's name have you been? You are completely soaked!" Cassiopeia exclaimed as quietly as possible.

The Curse Breaker gave her a weak smile, trying to pull his hair tie out of his ponytail. "We had an old artifact sent to us by one of the excavation teams in South America. It seems to be some kind of artificial rain maker. Unfortunately, they did not include instructions how to turn it off."

"Why haven't you dried yourself yet?" the witch asked, pulling her wand out of its holster.

"I can't. Nothing I do works. I kind of hoped you might know a spell..."

Cassiopeia pointed her wand at the wizard, using the strong drying spell she usually relied on for dry her hair but Bill was just as wet as he had been before. Cursing silently, she tried a few of the more obscure spells she knew, but nothing changed.

"I'm sorry but it doesn't work," she said, standing up on her tiptoes, helping Bill to disentangle his hair from the tie.

"What happened to you?" Molly Weasley's horrified cry had both of them flinch. The curtains to their right flew open, to reveal Walburga Black once more.

_"Not only letting blood-traitors and mudbloods into the house, now you have to -"_

Deciding she did not want to know what her mother thought she was doing, Cassiopeia made the curtains shut again.

"I see no one managed to get rid of her yet. Ow, careful with the hair!" Bill complained, grabbing her wrist to stop her from further tugging on his hair.

"Don't be such a wimp, I barely pulled," the Hit Witch grumbled, shaking his hand off. Leaning closer so she could inspect the knots, her chest hit Bill's back and her robes soaked up the water immediately. Idly wondering how he had managed to tangle his hair so much, she finally got the tie free, the wet strands of red hair tumbling over the Curse Breaker's back.

"Don't bother, Mum. Drying charms don't work. I'll have to wait until it dries on its own," Bill told his mother, who frowned at him, wand raised.

"Perhaps you can borrow some of Ron's clothes, for now. He is the tallest of the lot," Molly suggested, before going upstairs, in search of her youngest son.

"I am not wearing Ron's clothes!" Bill grumbled weakly, after she was out of earshot.

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. "I had not pegged you as too vain to wear your younger brothers clothes to avoid a cold."

"It has nothing to do with vanity and I'm not cold. Warming charms still work."

The witch snorted disbelievingly, stroking a finger over the goose bumps, that had risen on the Curse Breakers bare forearms. "Nothing to do with vanity, sure. You seem to forget that Lucius Malfoy married into my family. I recognize vanity if I see it," she teased. Bill pouted at her and the witch bit her lip, trying to suppress the giggles, that threatened to come out.

The expression on the Curse Breakers face changed, the pout turning into a predatory grin. Surprised, Cassiopeia took a couple of steps backwards, until she hit the wall.

"I'm vain, mhh?" the Curse Breaker asked, stepping closer, caging her with his arms. The witch looked up at him with big, grey eyes, trying to figure out his expression. One part of her brain screamed at her to break free, to not allow him to keep her backed up into a wall. Another part of her was mesmerized by the dark blue eyes staring down at her. Curious as to what he was planning, Cassiopeia fought down her instinct to draw her wand and kept perfectly still. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she waited for him to do something.

Bill continued to stare down at her, studying her face.

"If I do anything you feel uncomfortable with, you just have to say stop, ok?" he said, his voice huskier than it normally was.

The witch swallowed and nodded in agreement, her body tingling softly at his tone.

"Good," the Curse Breaker murmured, bending down towards her. Cassiopeia could feel his breath ghosting over her face and her eyes closed on their own accord.

"William Weasley! Behave! You are getting the poor girl wet as well!" Molly scolded from the stairs.

Bill jumped away from the witch and Cassiopeia blinked, having momentarily forgotten where they were.

"Here, something dry to wear." The Weasley matriarch held out some clothes for Bill to take, a handmade maroon pullover amongst them. Her oldest son eyed the garments carefully.

"Mum, it's really nice you got me something dry but I can't wear it."

"And why can you not wear your brother's clothes? Do you want to get a cold?"

"No, I don't want to get a cold. Don't you think I am old enough to go home and find something dry to wear before going to an important meeting?" Bill grumbled, still refusing to take the clothes from his mother.

"Why haven't you done so, then?" Molly asked expectantly. Her voice told Cassiopeia that the older witch had reached the limit of her patience.

"Well...," Bill procrastinated, looking uncomfortable. "Dragon hide is almost impossible to take off when it's soaked. I can't get out of my trousers or my boots."

Cassiopeia silently stared at the Curse Breaker, before the giggles broke out. Even Molly had to chuckle at her son's predicament. Bill pouted at the Hit Witch, again. "That is not funny! Really!"

"Actually, it kind of is," came Ginny's voice from the stairs. The Weasley girl was sitting on the lowest step, with Ron, Hermione and the twins behind her. Fred and George had identical contemplative looks on their faces.

"Wet dragon hide sticks to the body - "

"- that might be an interesting phenomenon to research on."

"You two will do no such things! You should concentrate on your grades! This is your final year. How do you expect to get a job, if you do not manage to finish school? Your joke products will not help you any!" Molly shouted at her sons.

"Mum is not too happy about the twin's hobby. She wants them to work at the ministry but they rather want to open a joke shop," Bill explained to Cassiopeia quietly, happy that his mother's attention was now on his brothers. "They neglect their school work in order to invent more products. They did not get more than five O.W.L.s together, so Mum was quite unhappy with them last year."

The Hit Witch was astonished. How had they managed to get only so few O.W.L.s? If they got five together, that meant one only got two O.W.L.s! Didn't they have enough time to study for an hour or two?

Molly still glowered at the twins. "And now, upstairs. All of you! There will be a meeting, soon and you have no business down here. You can start unpacking. Ron, you will share a room with Fred and George, until we have cleaned another room. Ginny, Hermione, you will share as well."

Ron did not look happy at the prospect of sleeping anywhere near his brothers. "Why do I have to share a room with the twins?" he complained.

His mother gave him a smirk. "Of course, you could also share with your father and I."

The youngest Weasley son paled at that thought. "I'll share with Fred and George!" he quickly decided, before hurrying up the stairs, probably to reserve the best bed for himself. The rest of the children followed at a more sedate pace.

"Molly dear? You might want to take a look at your cooking," Arthur called from the kitchen. "Something smells burned."

"Oh dear! I forgot about the stew!" Molly exclaimed and ran off into the kitchen, leaving Bill and Cassiopeia alone in the hallway.

An awkward silence stretched between them and the witch was not sure how to proceed. She was not as naive as to not recognize Bill had been about to kiss her, but she was uncertain why. Had it been an act? Had he done it to support the believe they were a couple? But why had he done it, while nobody was around? Was it, because he had wanted to? Should she ask him?

"Dinner is ready! Cassiopeia, Bill, come to the kitchen!"

"Come on, let's get some of Mum's cooking before it is all gone," Bill suggested, smiling and nodding into the direction of the kitchen. Was it imagination or had he lost some of the confidence he usually carried himself with?


	11. First meeting of the second Order

Once again, thanks for the lovely reviews.

I am afraid you will have to wait a little longer until they stop dancing around each other. I have a couple of things planned, that have to happen first, so, stay tuned.

Since a guest reviewed that they are checking every day for an update, I am sorry, but I will probably only update once a week from now on. I am a bit busy with RL and have only little time to write. Don't worry, though, I am not abandoning the story and I write as fast as I can.

* * *

When Dumbledore finally arrived, he was immediately surrounded by members of the Order, who had slowly trickled in over the last hour. All of them had questions they wanted to ask him. He greeted everyone of them, telling them to postpone their queries, before pulling Cassiopeia aside and into the ground floor living room.

"You mentioned, you might change your occupation, if there were good reasons to do so," he began, curiously studying the goblin-made silver in one of the cabinets.

"Yes?" The Hit Witch was not quite sure where this conversation was going.

"Cornelius passed a new law, just a few hours ago. It gives the Ministry the right to appoint Professors if the Headmaster fails to find a qualified candidate," the old wizard continued, still not looking at the witch. "As you know, we always have a problem with the post of the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher and nobody seems willing to teach next year..."

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. Hogwarts did seem to wear out it's DADA professors but there had always been someone, who wanted to do the job. "You still have a few weeks before the term starts. I'm sure you will find someone. What I am more curious about is, how the Minister managed to pass that law."

Hogwarts had always been outside the influence of the Ministry to assure the children could not be influenced by a power-hungry politician. Why would someone...?

"Cornelius seems to be under the impression I was after his job and that I wanted to recruit the students for my purposes. He is afraid and desperately clinging to power. The _Prophet's_ slandering of my person must have convinced many, that I am no longer able to fulfill my duties as Headmaster," Dumbledore explained, finally turning back to the Hit Witch. "They cannot sack me, because that is a decision only the Board of Governors can make and the majority of those still stands behind me. Perhaps they feel it is safest, if at least the teachers are selected by the Ministry. Some, that believe Voldemort has returned, convinced them to put the passage about the Headmaster not being able to find a candidate into the law."

"We should be grateful, then, but why are you telling me this here, away from the others?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I have not much time left to find an appropriate candidate, Ms Black. The Ministry wants to know the name of the new Professor first week of August."

The witch stared at him for a moment, confused, before the realization dawned. "Me? You want me to teach Defense against the Dark Arts? Headmaster, I am terrible at teaching. I am a Black, nobody will trust me with their children. I have no patience, I have -"

"The practical experience the students would benefit from. You know what it is like to fight for your life, you can prepare them for what is to come. Someday soon, they may have to fight for their lives, especially the muggle-borns."

Chewing on her bottom lip, the witch thought about that. Once Voldemort stopped hiding, muggle-borns would indeed be in danger but there had to be someone else, who could teach them. Someone who actually knew how to handle children. There was also her Office to think about, she could not simply leave them high and dry.

"My colleagues need me, I cannot quit now. We are understaffed and there is a threat out there, the Minister refuses to see. I am needed out in the field."

"Yet, you are restricted to paperwork," Dumbledore pointed out.

Cassiopeia glared at him, though he was right. "Still, I do not think I am the right person for the job. I am sorry."

"I would appreciate it, if you thought on the matter again, Ms Black. You are the only candidate I can think of. I do not want to imagine who might be appointed by the Ministry."

The Hit Witch nodded noncommittal, before leaving the room.

* * *

Since the last of the members of the Order of the Phoenix had trickled finally arrived, the kitchen was now fuller than it had ever been before. Molly once again made sure that Cassiopeia sat next to Bill, whom she, in turn, had placed close to the oven. Despite the young man's insistence, that he was not cold, his mother could not help but worry. When the Hit Witch pointedly looked from him to the oven and back, the Curse Breaker rolled his eyes and gave a defeated shrug.

Despite this, seemingly normal, interaction, Cassiopeia could feel the awkwardness between them. She had spent the time between the almost-kiss and Dumbledore's arrival thinking about ways she could strike up a conversation with Bill and subtlety figure out, why he had tried to kiss her but once she had decided on a course of action, she found a thousand reasons why it was stupid and abandoned the idea.

The Curse Breaker did not seem to know what to do either. Cassiopeia had caught him staring at her a few times but whenever he noticed that she had caught him, he would avert his eyes. The witch silently grumbled at his actions. Wasn't he the Gryffindor? Wasn't he the one, that should be bold and courageous?

"As much as I rejoice in seeing you all again, the circumstances are not what I would have hoped for," Dumbledore said, interrupting the Hit Witch's thoughts. "Voldemort is back."

Several members of the Order flinched at the mention of his name but Dumbledore continued unconcerned. "He returned after his servant had kidnapped Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory during the Third Task. Mr. Diggory did not survive this meeting but Harry managed to flee and warn us. You were all told about this and have decided to fight again, or, in case of our new members, to raise your wands against him," Dumbledore began. "I have long since suspected that Lord Voldemort had not died that night in Godric's Hollow and now I have been proven right. The manner, in which he returned has surprised us all. He is laying low now, instead of acting."

"But why?" Dedalus Diggle asked, fiddling with his hat. The behavior distantly reminded the Hit Witch of Cornelius Fudge.

It was a good question, though. One Cassiopeia had asked herself more than once since the Final Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Why did he not go out and spread terror, like he had once done? But the answer was obvious. "He has learned from his mistakes and he has been weakened. The Dark... _Voldemort_ was gone for more than a decade. Many of his followers are in Askaban and the rest of them may have stopped believing in him. He will need time to restore his forces to their old power. Fudge and his ignorance are playing him in the hands."

Dumbledore nodded. "An apt observation, Ms Black. However, I believe it is not quite correct. While his followers may have lost some of their faith, I do not believe he would wait and do nothing, in order to regain it. There is something else he wants. Something he did not have last time."

Noticing the confused glances of those, that had been members of the Order during the first war, Cassiopeia was happy to know she was not the only one, who couldn't follow. A blond wizard, sitting next to Mad-Eye and looking somewhat uncomfortable due to that fact, spoke up. Cassiopeia could not remember his name, just, that she had met him in a park during her lunch break on Wednesday.

"But, what would that be?" Mr. Wednesday-lunch-break asked.

Dumbledore sighed. "I have spoken to Severus and he has confirmed my suspicions. What will tell you, has to remain secret for now."

"You spoke with Severus Snape?" Tonks asked, confused. "But, isn't he a Death Eater?"

Twinkling blue eyes fixed on the young Auror. "He used to be, yes, but not anymore. He is on our side, now and is risking his life for us, by passing on secret information."

Kingsley seemed not to be convinced. He was good at his job and knew people did not make a u-turn in their believes for no good reason. "Can we be really sure he is not secretly spying on us?"

"Yes. I will not betray Severus' trust by telling you what made him change his mind but you have my word, that he is on our side."

"He warned Dumbledore, when he felt his Mark burning," Cassiopeia added. She knew, that a Slytherin defending another did not hold much sway amongst people but she felt the need to say it, anyway. "I was there. He had not been in contact with the Dark... _Voldemort_ before nor was there any indication the Headmaster might find out about his return from another source."

"Good. Now that we established that, where was I? Ah, right, the thing Voldemort wants. As I said, it will have to remain secret."

The people in the room nodded solemnly, waiting for the old wizard to continue.

"You all know the Potters went into hiding, after we found out Voldemort was after their son but I never told any of you why he wanted Harry dead. Shortly before Harry's birth, a prophecy was made, announcing the upcoming birth of the one, who will vanquish the Dark Lord."

There was silence for a moment, before several members of the Order started to ask questions all at once.

"What does the prophesy say?"

"Who made the prophesy?"

"Does it say how he will vanquish _You-know-who_?" Mr. Wednesday-lunch-break, again.

"Harry really is the one, that has to kill _You-know-who_?" Molly Weasley's worry was audible in her voice. Cassiopeia didn't know why but the more she heard him speak, the more she disliked him. There was something about him, that made the hair at the back of her neck stand.

Dumbledore held up his hand. "One question after the other. The prophesy was made during a job interview for the post of Professor for Divination at Hogwarts. It was the reason, why I decided to employ the candidate."

Cassiopeia stared at the Headmaster in disbelief. "Sybill Trelawney? She actually made a real prophesy? And here I thought I wasted three years on the subject..."

The witch could not remember a single occasion, where the Professor had shown any talent for the subject she taught.

"Wasn't it you, who she prophesied to die in your first lesson?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Visiting the Professor for a cup of tea Tuesday afternoon had been a strange experience. Of course, she knew teachers were normal human beings with lives outside the classroom but seeing it with her own eyes had been something else, entirely. The woman did own a nice cottage in the Highlands and the Hit Witch had admired the scenery for a couple of minutes, before she knocked.

"Yes, now I remember. You had Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs afterwards and they were all whispering and trying to comfort you. I had to threaten them with detention to get their attention back to the class."

"Don't remind me! That were the worst ten minutes of my life! I just couldn't get rid of them." The Hit Witch shuddered, just thinking of it. "Do you know what that does to a Slytherin's reputation?! I was really close to hexing them... well, I actually did have to hex some of my housemates in the common room later that day because of that... Anyway as you can see, I am still alive, so - "

"Professor Trelawney was always worried, I would break one of her precious pink teacups but she never seemed surprised when I did," Tonks interjected.

"I don't think one needs to be a seer to expect you breaking something as delicate as those teacups, Nymphadora. That is simple math. I am sorry to say so, but you _are_ terribly clumsy."

Mad-Eye nodded, agreeing with Cassiopeia's analysis, while Tonks' hair turned red at the mention of her first name.

"Back to the question. Yes, it was Sybill Trelawney, who made the prophesy," Dumbledore confirmed.

"You said it was during a job interview, so, how could Voldemort find out about it?" Remus asked, massaging his temples. Cassiopeia felt for him. As a werewolf, his senses were much keener than those of most people and the noise level in the room must have been torture for him.

"Unfortunately, we were overheard by a spy. He did not hear the full content of the prophesy, since he was caught eavesdropping. Still, he went to his master with the part he had heard and Voldemort decided to kill Harry as an infant."

"What does the prophesy say about my godson?" Sirius asked, worriedly.

Dumbledore sighed. "It is not that I do not trust you all, but we cannot risk the information passing on to Voldemort. As long as none of you knows its content, Voldemort cannot gain it from you. I think, his main goal for now is, to obtain the whole prophesy. Sybill is safe in Hogwarts, he cannot reach her there. He knows he cannot get it from me, so that only leaves him one option."

"Someone else knows the whole prophesy?" Molly wondered.

"No. Every prophesy, fulfilled or not, is stored in a room at the _Department of Mysteries._"

"You do realize that the _Department of Mysteries_ is in the Ministry of Magic and that it is one of the best guarded places there? He cannot walk in there and obtain the prophesy," Cassiopeia interjected. This didn't make any sense. Why return quietly and then announce your presence by walking into the Ministry. Even Lord Voldemort was not powerful enough to defeat every single member of _DMLE_, that was on duty, was he?

"He could sent his Death Eaters," Emmeline Vance, a Healer from St. Mungo's, that had treated many of Cassiopeia's colleagues, answered. Cassiopeia could vividly remember the witch's face, when she had arrived at the hospital to tell her about the headquarters. Vance had simply pointed at the bed assigned to the Hit Witch with a sigh and started to run diagnosis spells, before Cassiopeia had a chance to tell her she was unharmed.

"No, he can't. The Hall of Prophesies is enchanted. Only those people, the prophesy applies to, can touch it," Cassiopeia told her. She had been down at the _Department of Mysteries_ twice, because of a case. Both times had left her extremely uncomfortable but she had learned a lot about the activities down there by watching and listening to the Unspeakables. They may have thought they were being discreet but the witch was trained to find even the smallest bits of information and puzzle them together.

Dumbledore looked intrigued. The Hit Witch wondered, if she had finally managed the seemingly impossible and knew something the Headmaster did not.

"Are you sure about this, Ms Black?"

"Yes. Not even the Unspeakables can remove them."

"That is good for us. So we do not have to worry about all of the Death Eaters, that are working at the Ministry. Still, once Voldemort figured out about this, he may try to go himself, or manipulate Harry to get it for him. So, we need to figure out, how we can make sure we know when he tries."

Cassiopeia let her thoughts drift from the conversation for a while. She had no time to guard a door, as important as it may be and if something strange happened, there was a great likelihood she was at the Ministry anyway.

Why had someone as intelligent as the Dark Lord acted on a prophesy he did not even know completely? It was common knowledge, that prophesies were often self-fulfilling or the events never came to pass. On top of that, there could always be more than one interpretation of the content. One just had to look at what happened to King Croesus, when he asked the Oracle in Delphi for advice. The woman had been a very talented seer but her prediction had proven to be to ambiguous for the Muggle king to understand. His ignorance had been his downfall. It was, Cassiopeia mused, quite hilarious, to see the parallels between the two prophesies. Maybe it was more difficult to interpret a fragment of a prophesy than a whole one but the Dark Lord had the advantage of being magical himself.

A light nudge from Bill made her focus on the conversation again. They had moved on from talking about the _Department of Mysteries_ and watching its entrance to Harry Potter.

"Molly, I have told you this before. It is vital, that Harry spends some time at his relatives home, before he can come and stay with your family," Dumbledore explained in a gentle tone.

"But why? This house is safe and I promised Harry he could stay with me during summers -," Sirius added, looking inquiringly at the older wizard. "He does not like his Muggle relatives, so why does he have to stay?"

"Why does he live with his Muggle relatives anyway? Why has he not been placed with his magical relatives? He is related to the Blacks and his godfather is a Black," Cassiopeia wondered. This did not make sense. Why would anyone place a magical child into a Muggle family? Even if there were no magical blood relatives anymore, there were always some witches and wizards, that would take in an orphaned child - especially if said child was the boy-who-lived.

Sirius gave a disbelieving snort. "You honestly believe, any of our relatives would have wanted to raise Harry Potter, vanquisher of the Dark Lord?"

"Well, mother certainly would not have, since he is a half-blood. I don't think the vanquishing the Dark Lord part would have been a problem. Grandfather may have taken him in, perhaps or Aunt Cassiopeia. Harry's grandmother was her sister after all and she loved children, even though she never had any of her own," the witch explained. Her aunt had stated more than once, that the one thing she regretted in life was not having children. She would have been delighted to be able to raise her grandnephew, even if he was not a pure-blood.

"Ms Black did indeed ask to be allowed to take in her grandnephew but it was not possible. It was safest for Harry to be raised far away from the magical community. If no one knew, where he was, there was little chance for the remaining Death Eaters to hurt him," Dumbledore said, giving Cassiopeia a look, that clearly asked her to drop the topic. The Hit Witch had no intentions to follow this request, though. She had caught scent of a big secret and was set on finding out everything there was to know about it.

"I doubt that. Even the Death Eaters would not have dared to attack a child of the Black family. Almost all of them have blood ties to the family and the consequences for them would have been... severe - at least by pure-blood standards."

Yes, her father had been afraid of the Dark Lord, he would have been foolish not to be but after he was gone, the Death Eaters had nothing to scare him with. Had they attacked Cassiopeia, who had been Orion's favorite aunt - hence naming his only daughter after her - the consequences would have been far-reaching. If he decided to disown all family members, that married into Death Eater families, their pure-blood status would have been in danger. They would still have had pure blood, yes, but there would be no family tree to officially proof it and the family tree was, what was important. If you did not have an impressive family tree, you were nothing in pure-blood society.

"Be that as it may, it still was safer to place Harry with Lily's family."

Cassiopeia did not miss the fact, that the Headmaster was trying to end the conversation without giving away anything. "Why?" she simply asked, leaning back in her chair and looking him square in the eye. The more he tried to avoid the topic, the more persistent she got. When interrogating a suspect, anything they tried to avoid, even while being under Veritaserum usually proved to be _very_ interesting. Not necessarily important for the case but still... one could never know when it came in handy.

Dumbledore seemed to be taken aback for a moment, not having expected someone so young to demand an answer from him. "Lily died to protect Harry, her sacrifice, her blood is, what keeps her son safe from Voldemort," he answered testily. "Voldemort cannot touch him, if he stays with his family for some time during the year."

"A blood ward?" Cassiopeia asked, surprised. "Blood magic is, what you trust to protect a boy from the most dangerous wizard of our time?!"

Blood magic was a very dark, not well known and terribly unreliable branch of magic. There were few who ever truly understood all of the conditions, that had to be met for it to really work. Cassiopeia herself had only a very limited understanding of it. She knew everything there was to know about it theoretically, from books in the family library but she lacked the feeling for it. What she had read though, had been enough to leave her with a serious distaste for blood magic.

Her father had been one of those few, that had a hand for blood magic and had incorporated blood wards into the defenses around the house. They were astonishingly effective but keeping them up, especially now that many non-relatives were in the house, was difficult for Cassiopeia. The wards drew their strength from her blood and her loyalty to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was the only thing, that kept them from dissolving. Since Sirius had cut all ties to his family, he was no help and the responsibility was on the witch's shoulders alone.

"If Dumbledore cast the magic himself, I am sure Harry is safe and if he needs to stay with his Muggle relatives for a few weeks for it -," Remus said.

"Dumbledore cast nothing," Cassiopeia interrupted him. "The word itself already tells you what causes the magic. Blood. There is no need for a spell. Because of Lily's sacrifice, the magic is in his blood - Is everything alright, brother?"

Sirius looked paler than the Bloody Baron. "Blood. Harry's blood."

"Huh?" Cassiopeia furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what he was talking about.

"Blood that Voldemort now shares. Do you remember what Harry told us about the graveyard? How Peter took his blood for the potion that brought Voldemort back?"

The Hit Witch thought back to the conversation, cold dread running down her back. "Oh sh..."

If the Dark Lord shared Harry's blood, then the protection it had once offered was gone. There was actually nothing, that could stop Voldemort from marching right into the house Harry lived in and killing him.

Dumbledore seemed to realize the problem for the first time. The lines on his face became more prominent with every passing minute. "I had not even thought about that..."

"We have to do something!" Sirius said, panic clear in his voice. He had gotten up from his chair and was halfway out of the room, before his sister caught up with him.

"Sirius Orion Black! You will stay here. You were all over the Muggle news when you escaped from Askaban."

"What are you three talking about?" Molly asked, looking from one to the other.

Dumbledore gave the members of the Order a short summary of what Harry had told them and explained about the blood.

"We have to do something! We cannot leave him with those horrible people, if he is not even safe from _You-know-who_ there!" Molly exclaimed.

"He will not have to stay there for long, Molly. We will pick him up as soon as possible but we have to make sure the Ministry is not watching him, before," Dumbledore tried to assure the distraught woman but Molly did not seem to want to calm down.

"I did not believe Ron and the twins at first, when they told me his relatives had put a cat flap on his door but Hermione..."

"What exactly is a cat flap?" Kingsley asked, speaking out, what the pure-bloods amongst them thought.

The arrival of an hawk patronus delayed the answer to his question.

"Black, back to the office, now! We need all available Hit Wizards," the voice of Cassiopeia's boss sounded through the room and the witch was out of her chair, before he had finished. If that didn't sound like an emergency she didn't know what would.

"I'll come by tomorrow, if I can, to help you with the house. Headmaster, I will give you a paper with the address as soon as I am back," she said, before leaving in a hurry, never noticing the worried blue eyes of a certain redhead, that followed her.


	12. A dangerous job

This time, you get to read a bit about Cassiopeia doing her job. I hope you like it.

* * *

It was one week later when Cassiopeia finally returned to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, exhausted and with a headache. She wasn't quite sure why she had actually landed here, since she had focused on going home, when she disapparated from a small and dirty village up in the north. _Well, perhaps there is edible food in the kitchen here_, the she thought and entered the house.

There were voices coming from the kitchen, even though it was almost midnight and the witch made her way over to the room, wondering who might still be awake.

Most members of the Order were sitting around the table, though discussions about serious matters seemed to be over, since they were chattering and gossiping about minor things. Sirius, Remus and, to the Hit Witch's astonishment, Minerva McGonagall were playing Exploding Snap under the watchful eye of Alastor Moody. The witch let out a relieved sigh, when she saw, that Dumbledore was there as well, although he looked tired. It saved her a lot of time. She had not planned on doing this now but she might as well get over with it.

Cassiopeia took a deep breath. What she was about to do would change her whole live.

"Does your offer still stand, Headmaster?" she asked, startling many, who had not noticed her arrival before. Only Mad-Eye seemed as calm as ever but it was impossible to hide from his magical eye anyway.

Dumbledore looked at her in surprise. "As I said, you are the only candidate I can think of and I am running out of time."

She let her head fall back onto the door frame, closing her eyes. This would overthrow all of her plans for restoring the family name but it had to be done. "Okay, I'll do it."

* * *

_After she had been called back to the office, Cassiopeia apparated directly to Level 2 of the Ministry of Magic. Since it was an emergency, the usual rule of no apparition outside the Entrance Hall did not apply. She mostly ignored that rule anyway and up to now, nobody had ever complained about it._

_There was light in all of the rooms and members of all offices of the DMLE were bustling around, their voices mixing to an indistinguishable buzz._

_"Good you're here, Black. We'll need the best," a Magical Witch Watcher told her in passing. "This has the potential to become a disaster."_

'It would help, if I knew what I was here for, as well,'_ the Hit Witch thought, hurrying into the next room._

_Most of her colleagues were already in the office, when she entered. They all stood around a table, studying a map, pointing at something or another. " - to watch the door, here. It could be - "_

_"I don't think, we should take this route. He will expect us to come that way -"_

_"Black, good, you're here. Listen, I know you are technically banned from fieldwork right now but we need the best we have for this," Alastor Gumboil, Head of the Hit Wizard office, said. He looked twice as tired as he had, when Cassiopeia had left the office less than four hours earlier. What in Merlin's name had been going on in such a short time span?_

_"Do you remember those strange murders along the Scottish coast? The ones Denbright read about in the Muggle newspaper?" _

_"The ones with the writings on the walls?" She could vaguely recall the Hit Wizard telling her about them, before the Senior Undersecretary of the Minister had entered the office with her memos. There had been runes smeared across the walls that had vexed the Muggle authorities. Given that they were magical runes, this was no surprise. _

_Denbright, since his mother was a Muggle, sometimes read their news paper when he visited his parents. There had been no picture of the runes but the description one of the officers had given the reporter had been enough to pique the Hit Wizard's interest. He had taken a look at the last crime scene and alarmed the DMLE._

_Gumboil nodded. "Exactly. The Magical Witch Watchers figured out who did it. He is currently hiding in a house near Edinburgh. We know him, or, rather our colleagues from Spain know him. He managed to escape twice, after they cornered him. Killed three good wizards."_

_"Merlin! What about the Muggle authorities? They are on the case as well. Is everything clear from that side?"_

_Her boss sighed. "Unfortunately, they found him as well. I have no idea how they did it. Something about, what was it called? DNO?"_

_"DNA, boss," Denbright corrected. "They have surrounded the house but have not entered, yet. Which is, why we need to hurry up. If they go in, there will be a massacre. They don't stand a chance."_

_Cassiopeia pulled on a strand of her hair. "Have the Obliviators been informed yet?"_

_"They are calling them back in large numbers. This will take them ages to clean up, even if we get the Muggles to leave, before we enter."_

_"What is our plan, then?" Cassiopeia asked, pulling a Muggle hair tie out of a drawer of her desk. One of her female colleagues had given her one of them during her first year in the DMLE and she had used them ever since. Muggle hair ties, for some reason, worked far better than magical ones._

_"Strength in numbers, the best people we have... that's how far we got 'till now. They are currently checking all possible exits on the map. I called you back as soon as we got the information."_

_Cassiopeia sighed. "Great, how can I help?"_

_"Use that forked silver tongue of yours and make the Muggles go away."_

* * *

_Cassiopeia was pressed against a damp stone wall. Even though she was under a disillusionment charm, she tried to stick as close to the rough surface, as possible._

_She had managed to 'convince' the Muggle police to leave. It had taken some strong compulsion charms but now, they were happily waiting at the police station for the Obliviators to arrive._

_It was always annoying for the Hit Wizards, if Muggle authorities were somehow involved in a case. Since they specialized in hunting down the most dangerous magical criminals, having Muggles around, who thought they knew how to capture the suspect was an unpredictable risk for all parties involved._

_Cassiopeia was often given the task to get rid of the Muggles, as quickly as possible and the witch enjoyed making more and more dramatic entries every time. The Obliviators would take care of everything afterwards anyway, so why not enjoy the faces of the Muggles while she could?_

_This time, she had landed on the tree the Muggles were having their briefing under, charms hiding her and muffling any sound she made._

* * *

_"Alright, everybody. Let's do this!" the squad leader had said, rolling up the ground plan of the old farm house._

_"I would not do that, if I were you," Cassiopeia had advised from her branch. The Muggles had looked around, startled, but could not find anyone._

_"Try the tree," the witch suggested, the amusement in her voice barely hidden and lifted the disillusionment charm when they were all looking up at her. Cassiopeia giggled, as she watched the round eyes and open mouths. They had probably never before seen a woman wearing a silver-grey cloak over leather pants and holding a broom in one hand appear out of nowhere._

_"Don't stand there with your mouths open, it is impolite!" she chastised, hopping off the branch. "Didn't they teach you manners?"_

_"How..."_

_"I got here?" Cassiopeia waved the broom in her hand a little. "Used this, what else?"_

_"But this area is blocked off. How did -?" one of the officers seemed to have found his voice._

_"If that's what you call blocked off... well, beside the point. I need you to leave. Now, preferably. You're in the way," the witch said, making a shooing motion with her right hand._

_"Now, Ms, I don't know what you are doing here but this is a police operation. You need to leave, or we will arrest you," the squad leader told her, coming closer and towering over the Hit Witch threateningly. Cassiopeia giggled once again. "My, my. Aren't you a funny guy?"_

_Denbright appeared in the air above them. "Don't blab, Black, make them leave. He noticed us, we have to hurry."_

_One of the Muggle officers pointed at the Hit Wizard, excitedly. "Do you see that? He is flying on a broom!"_

_"Pff, if you appear out of thin air, you render them speechless but if you fly on a broom, they point and get excited." Shaking her head, Cassiopeia drew her wand. "Pity, I enjoyed the conversation. Alright guys, time to go back to the police station."_

* * *

_Her wand in front of her, ready to attack, Cassiopeia waited for Ophelia Haywood's signal. When the other witch waved her closer, she advanced on the door, where a faint light could be seen through a small gap. Andrew Smythe, another Hit Wizard, followed one step behind her. _

_They were guarding the back door, the rest of the team had already advances through the front door and the three of them were waiting for the suspect to show up. They had set up anti-disapparition wards around the area, so the only ways out of the house would be the back door or going through seven Hit Wizards._

_Cassiopeia could feel the adrenaline rushing through her body. The anxiousness was something you could never get rid of. She could hear her colleagues shouting inside the house but could not understand what was being said. Then, there were flashes of red and a loud BANG, as something, or someone, hit a wall. The back door flew open and a wizard with short, dark hair came outside, his wand trained at somebody behind him._

_Ophelia exploited his distraction and sent a stunner at him but it missed. Instantly, the wizard whirled around and shot back an inaudible curse at the witch, hitting her square in the chest. He had not noticed Cassiopeia and Smythe yet and the witch did her best to remain unseen, holding the Hit Wizard back, when he wanted to go to their injured colleague. They needed an opening and they needed to hit him, there was no room for close calls anymore. Whatever it was, the wizard had hit the other Hit Witch with, it was nasty. Her face had lost all of its color and, from what Cassiopeia could see in the soft light, her breath was shallow. They had to get her to St. Mungo's and quickly._

_Gumboil and Denbright came out of the back door, the latter looking like he had bathed in dust. Another team of two Hit Wizards was hot on their heels. When the suspect turned to them, Cassiopeia saw the opportunity she had been waiting for and left her hiding place to run across the lawn so she could get a better angle for the curse. She would not miss him._

_There was a loud _crack_ and Cassiopeia almost had to do a double take, when Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic appeared in all of her pink glory. "Ms Black! I thought I had been clear when I ordered you -"_

_Also noticing the witch's arrival, the suspect shot a curse at her. The Hit Witch barely had time to react. She jumped, catching Umbridge at the waist and pulling her to the ground just managing to keep a hold on her wand in the process. The curse flew over them harmlessly. Cassiopeia rolled off the other witch and jumped up again, sending a stunner at her opponent. They wanted him alive, after all._

_The wizard managed to block the curse and sent out one of his own. The Hit Witch could see the orange light leaving his wand and made an attempt to block the curse, but the Senior Undersecretary grabbed her wand hand. "You will not be involved in any field work. You will -"_

_Cassiopeia did not find out what she was supposed to do, as the curse hit her and everything turned black._

* * *

_"Black? Cassiopeia? Can you hear me?" the voice seemed faint, almost, as if she had water in her ears. The Hit Witch raised her head, trying to focus on what was happening in front of her but listening already took up all of her energy. There was a hand on her shoulder, gently pressing her back down._

_Cassiopeia concentrated solely on breathing. In ... and out, in ... and out. Slowly, her hearing returned back to normal and she could understand what was being said._

_"Ah. Good girl. We are at St. Mungo's. You and Haywood got hit. The two of you gave us quite the scare, you know."_

_The witch gave a weak chuckle. "What... did he... hit me with?" she forced out, while trying to remember whom the voice belonged to._

_"Something similar to a cutting curse. You were lucky it did not hit any vital parts. The Healers patched you back together and replenished your blood but you did not wake up for almost three days."_

_Finally, Cassiopeia could see who was sitting next to her bed. It was Alastor Gumboil, who looked down at her, worry shining in his eyes. "Do you remember what happened?"_

_"Umbridge... appeared out of nowhere... She demanded I return to the office. She grabbed my wand hand and... I could not block the curse," the witch said, desperately trying to calm the tremors running though her body. Focusing on more than one thing at once was still difficult, so it took her a while to answer. "Ophelia got hit as well... is she alright?"_

_"The Healers are still working on her but she will be ok. No permanent damage."_

_"She would have been devastated if her wedding was ruined by some scars," Denbright added from where he was leaning against a window._

_The witch closed her eyes again and took a couple of deep breathes, before she spoke again._

_"Why would scars ruin her wedding?" she asked. "She is a Hit Witch. Those scars would mark her bravery. She should be proud of them."_

_Gumboil chuckled, patting the witch on the arm. "Glad to hear you think so, because you have some new body art yourself. There is a long scar over your ribs where the curse hit you. It is faint but visible none the less."_

_Giving him an unconcerned shrug, Cassiopeia asked a far more important question. "Did we get him?" _

_"Denbright took him out, when you were falling to the ground. We've got him, don't worry."_

_"What happened to Smythe?" She could remember the Hit Wizard being behind her. "Is he alright?"_

_Gumboil did not answer for a moment. "He is alright. You came out behind that wall, aiming your wand at the suspect. I could see you, even though you were disillusioned. I don't know why but I could. It was the same with Haywood and Smythe. All of your Disillusionment charms seem to have failed at some point. We are still trying to find out why. Anyway, then Madame Umbridge appeared out of nowhere and you went down. Smythe grabbed the Senior Undersecretary and brought her back to the Ministry. Rufus, I and even Amelia Bones talked to the Minister about her actions but he refuses to do anything."_

_The Hit Wizard seemed angry. After knowing him for five years, Cassiopeia was able to read his minimalistic facial expressions without a problem. Taking a deep breath, she tried to clear her head. There was pain in her left side when she moved and she scrunched up her face, hissing quietly._

_"Is everything alright? Is it aftereffects?" Denbright asked, coming over to get a closer look._

_"I don't think it is from the curse that brought me down." Carefully, she pried her clothes away from her left hip, trying to get a good look at the injury. The seams of the wound were an angry red and it had reopened. She poked at the wound. "Ouch!"_

_"Oh, that does not look good. Should I call for a Healer?"_

_"They already had a look at it. I got that over three months ago. Nobody knows what caused it," Cassiopeia explained, staring at the white ceiling. Someone really needed to figure out what had caused that. Perhaps she should ask Bill for his help. He had offered after all._

_Thinking about Bill, she suddenly remembered that her brother and the Weasleys had expected her back at Grimmauld Place or at least a note that she would not be able to come. Did they know what had happened? Did someone tell them? Should she have told someone to notify at least the Weasleys - since Sirius was out of question - if something happened to her? _

_The possible outcomes of the events were slowly trickling into her mind. If the spell had been aimed correctly, she would not have had a chance to defend herself. She would have bleed to death and if it had been a killing curse she would have been unable to evade. It would have been over, just like that. _

_The witch gave a sigh. Having people who might worry about you was exhausting._

_"How did Umbridge know I was out in the field anyway?" the Hit Witch asked her two colleagues._

_Alastor Gumboil ran his fingers through his hair. "That's what we have been trying to figure out the last couple of days. I called you back silently, so the only ones that knew about you being there were those people, that were involved in the arrest. And even if she had seen you, she should not have known where we were. That was restricted knowledge she should not have any access to. As much as I hate to say it, there seems to be a leak in our office."_

_"Or it was one of the Magical Witch Watchers. I met one of them in the corridor," Cassiopeia added, remembering the wizard she had met after her arrival._

_"Great, just great," Denbright mumbled. "Why is Umbridge so fixated on keeping you away from fieldwork?"_

_"Well, it might be, because I managed to make the Aurors suddenly concentrate on finding the records or a witness of my brother's trial. Or because I openly supported Harry's testimony of Voldemort's return. Oh, and I told the Minister I could have him sent to Askaban for a year because he ordered a Dementor to give Barty Crouch Jr. the kiss without having him officially questioned first."_

_The two wizards stared at her._

_"You did what?!" Alastor Gumboil questioned, his voice rising at the end of the sentence._

_"Wait, wait, wait. Why are the Aurors tying to find the records and what is this about Barty Crouch Jr.?" Denbright asked, looking confused._

_Cassiopeia looked at her boss. "Has Scrimgeour told you what happened?"_

_Gumboil nodded. "He told me something about active Dark Marks and a Dementor but he was not very forthcoming. He seemed to be choosing his words very carefully."_

_The Hit Witch nodded and decided to trust the two wizards with at least a part of the truth. They had never disappointed her before and, in the field, she trusted them with her life. She told them what Barty Crouch Jr. had said, when he was questioned under Veritaserum and what Harry had told them- though she left out Sirius' presence._

_"Merlin's beard!" was Gumboil's only comment, while Denbright stared at her, wide-eyed. Cassiopeia watched her colleagues' reaction quietly, thinking she did not do half as bad as she had thought, coping with the new information._

_"Why haven't you told us before?"_

_"I tried to but with the new orders from the Ministry and the refusal of most people to listen to you once you mention Voldemort...Plus you were really busy with that Orworth case..."_

_Gumboil pinched the bridge of his nose. "So that was what you wanted to tell me. There was so much to organize in order to prepare for transporting him from Brazil back to the UK and I thought whatever it is could wait..."_

_"What will we do now, boss?" Denbright asked. He looked a bit pale, Cassiopeia noticed._

_"Officially? Nothing. He is _not_ back, remember?... Unofficially? Hmm...let me think. Are you fit enough to work, Black?" Gumboil asked and the witch nodded. "Alright, then. Listen carefully. This is what we do."_

* * *

"Is everything alright, Peia? You look pale. Where have you been for the last week?" Sirius asked, worriedly.

Cassiopeia half opened one eye. Those were two of the questions she did not want to answer. "There were some hiccups during an arrest. Nothing you need to worry about."

Kingsley raised an eyebrow at her. "Minor hiccups? I heard something a little bit different-."

Of course. Gumboil had talked to Scrimgeour who, in turn, had told Kingsley, who, apparently, had not told anybody else. Just great. The witch didn't know what annoyed her more. The fact, that half of the _DMLE_ gossiped like school girls or that nobody deemed it important to inform her brother or her 'boyfriend'.

"Alright, maybe not so minor. I had to spent a couple of days in St. Mungo's but they sorted it out. As I said, there is nothing to worry about."

"St. Mungo's? Is that where you were the last week? What happened?" Sirius wanted to know. He had gotten up from his chair and was standing in front of her, now.

"I got hit by a cutting curse but it is all healed, see?" She showed him the scar across her ribcage, evading his question about where she had been during the last week. There was no need for anybody to know what she had done in the few days after she had left the hospital.

Sirius watched her with furrowed brows. He did not seem very convinced but - wisely - did not ask further questions.

Many of the members of the order took the following silence as a cue and, one by one, began to leave, until only those, that resided permanently in the house were left. Minerva McGonagall had congratulated Cassiopeia on her new job and told her to come by her office, should she ever have any questions, since Severus Snape was not likely to help her. Remus had promised to write down the titles of some books he deemed good as school books, while Sirius lamented over the fact, that his sister would now be one of those terrible beings, that handed out detention because of pranks.

Dumbledore pulled the witch aside, before he left. "We currently have people guarding Harry Potter round the clock but I would appreciate it, if you could write down the address of the headquarter and give it to Alastor. We are planning to pick up Harry as soon as we can."

Nodding in agreement, the witch asked a question of her own. "If I may ask, where exactly does Harry Potter live, Headmaster?"

"Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering," Cassiopeia said, absentmindedly waving him off.

Dumbledore raised one eyebrow but did not question her further.

"You should go to bed, Peia. You look tired," Bill suggested, when the last of the guests had finally left.

"I'll apparate home, once I'm finished." Cassiopeia had started to clean the dishes left over from dinner manually. It distracted her from worrying over Gumboil and Denbright, who were currently out, implementing their part of phase one.

"Just use a spell, dear," Molly said but the younger witch shook her head. Taking a wet cup out of Cassiopeia's hand, Bill started to dry the dishes. "We'll be faster, if we do it together."

"You should sleep here. It is safer and I can make you a nice breakfast in the morning. You wouldn't have to worry about anything and could relax for a bit. You work far too much, dear and now you've got hurt. I'm happy you're taking the job at Hogwarts. It will be safer for you and Bill won't have to worry so much. He was terrible during the last week, when nobody told us where you were."

"I appreciate the offer, Molly but I'll sleep in my flat. Bill can stay in my room," Cassiopeia declined. She had a feeling her sleep would - once again - be quite disturbed tonight and she did not want to wake up everybody. "You should all go to bed. There is no need to stay up and wait until I finished up, here."

After being reassured several times, that her help was not needed and yes, Cassiopeia was sure she did not need anything else, Molly Weasley went upstairs, followed by Arthur, Remus and Sirius. The latter gave his sister a worried glance, before leaving.

Cassiopeia and Bill cleaned the dishes in silence for some time and the witch became so immersed in her thoughts, she forgot everything around her. When the Curse Breaker's fingers touched hers, as he took a plate out of her hand, she twitched, dropping the dish. It shattered with a loud SMASH, the pieces landing all over the floor.

Bill reached down, to pick up the shards but pulled back his hand as soon as he touched the first piece. "Ouch," he winced, when blood started to well out of a cut on his finger. "Should have used my wand."

Cassiopeia stared at the red liquid, watching as it dripped onto the floor. Had her own blood looked the same way, running down her body? There had probably been a lot more, judging by the size of the cut and Gumboil's description. It was kind of amusing to her to see that only a thin, white line was left of a wound, that could have been lethal.

Grumbling, the Curse Breaker stuck his finger into his mouth, sucking the blood away.

"Would you mind? I can't heal my own wand hand," he said, holding out his hand in front of Cassiopeia. The Hit Witch blinked but did not react, her mind still stuck on her injury.

"Some when today would be nice, Peia," the wizard drawled and, when she still did not react, asked: "Is everything alright?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry," Cassiopeia said, healing the wound with a small tap of her wand. "I'm alright, don't worry."

"You have said that, before but I don't believe you," Bill said, gently forcing her to look him in the eye. "Why did you decide to teach? I thought you liked your job. Does it have anything to do with this cutting curse you talked about?"

Cassiopeia would not have made it into Slytherin house, if she could not lie someone to the face, without raising suspicion. Still, she pulled her face out of his grasp, focusing on the last dishes. "No, not really. It's just a scratch. All that it did was make me realize that the sabbatical many of my colleagues take isn't a bad idea. Dumbledore asked me to teach before all of that happened. It'll be only for a year, anyway."

She did not want to lie. Bill was honestly worried about her. She would have noticed even if Molly had not mentioned it earlier. It was something she was not used to. Still, she did not want to talk about what had happened - could not talk about it. Gumboil, Denbright and herself were now operating completely cut off from the other employees of the _DMLE_ and their actions had to remain top secret.

Dolores Umbridge would not know what hit her. The Senior Undersecretary had picked the wrong witch to mess with. Once they were done, the pink toad would be gone - preferably alongside the Minister - and, hopefully, people would finally acknowledge the Dark Lord's return.

"Then what is it? You flinched, when I touched you earlier and now you won't look at me." He sounded hurt and Cassiopeia felt terrible for being the reason. "Was it, because of what happened in the Entrance Hall? Because I tried to kiss you? Listen, I'm sorry. I know I should not have done that. I just thought you... well...perhaps I didn't think at all... I just wanted -"

The witch interrupted his stammered apology. "You have nothing to apologize for Bill. I'm a big girl, I could have stopped you. I take out dangerous criminals on a daily base, do you think you could force me to do something? I just have a lot on my mind right now."

The Curse Breaker carefully raised his hand once more and, this time, Cassiopeia did not pull away but enjoyed the gentle caress of his thumb. Her eyes fell shut on their own accord.

"Then tell me about it," Bill whispered and the witch could feel his breath on her face. Cassiopeia swallowed and her knees went weak, when she felt the Curse Breaker press a soft kiss onto her forehead. "Please. Let me help you."

The Curse Breaker put one arm around her waist, pulling her into him. In this moment, Cassiopeia truly wished life would be simple and she could tell Bill what had happened - but it was too risky. For Gumboil, for Denbright,... for him. The witch did not particularly care if everything blew up in her face. She knew the risks, as did Gumboil and Denbright. But Bill didn't and there was no way she would risk innocent bystanders.

Opening her eyes, the witch took a deep breath, trying to focus once more. "I'm sorry, Bill. I can't talk about it."

Bill did not seem convinced but nodded in acceptance, a sad smile on his face. "I'll listen, whenever you want to talk, whatever you want to talk about."


	13. Early morning visits

A.N.: Thanks to all of the lovely reviewers! You make me so happy!

* * *

Cassiopeia did not sleep well that night, even though she had not slept the two days prior. There had been too many things she needed to do, before accepting the position as DADA teacher.

Perhaps it was the dreams of the arrest that kept her from sleeping. At first, she only relived what had happened but then it changed. Different curses were thrown at her, ranging from a quite harmless leg-locker to the killing curse itself. But this was not what woke her up. After the killing curse seemingly had hit its aim, it was not Umbridge, who held her back but her mother. Then Dumbledore. Then Charlie. Then... no one. Slightly confused, she raised her wand to defend herself. Then she heard a voice, calling for her help. It took her only a moment to recognize it as Bill's voice. She looked around and found him, held by someone dressed in black robes, who had a wand pointed at the Curse Breakers neck. The witch did not even have the chance to fully process what she was seeing before a curse hit her in the back, waking her up.

She could not fall back asleep after that.

At six, she decided sleep was overrated anyway and got up. There were so many things she could do or, had to do. She had to send an official note to the office to tell them about the sabbatical she would be taking and that she would be teaching DADA at Hogwarts in the meantime.

The letter she had started to write to Charlie after she had come home still needed to be finished as well.

Absentmindedly, she picked up the letter from Charlie, that had arrived while she was unconscious. Alastor Gumboil had put it on her kitchen table when he came over to feed Bastet. The Dragon Tamer had written it shortly after he had arrived in Romania.

* * *

_Hi Peia,_

_international portkeys are a menace, did you know that? The one I traveled with actually missed its destination and I landed somewhere in the woods. Can you imagine how that felt like?_

Cassiopeia stopped reading for a moment, remembering all too well how it felt to land in the woods when travelling via portkey. Her landing somewhere in South America - she had yet to figure out where exactly the training camp was - had been similar. There was not even the slightest chance for a soft landing. As soon as you reached the treetops, you could only hope there were not too many branches or poisonous plants on the way down.

_Luckily, I know my way around in the reserve and managed to find my way back to the houses. They really need to work on the reliability of those things. I could have landed on top of a dragon!_

_Speaking of dragons, I told Norberta about your request not to grill me any more than she already has but I am unsure if her snorting meant yes or no. I guess you will have to ask her yourself when you finally come to visit me. You will come and visit sometime soon, right?_

_How are you coping with my family? Bill told me about his 'great' plan after you left and I must say, I am astonished you agreed. This recklessness is out of character for you. Does someone have a crush on my older brother, hmm? Then again, you are crazy enough to work for the Hit Wizard Office, so maybe this is normal for you._

_What really did intrigue me is, that Bill said you were not dating Mulciber at all. Didn't it ever occur to you to tell me such things? I thought we were friends... No, jokes aside. Bill described your reaction quite vividly. I wish I could have seen it. Make sure to tell me when you plan to pay Mulciber a visit. At least, I want to watch that._

_But, back to you and my brother 'dating'. How is that working out so far? Does he pay his girl enough attention or do I need to have a stern talk with him? I would, you know. I have enough brothers but there is only one of you and I would like to keep you around. _

_I am quite curios and Bill is not very forthcoming with information at the moment, so, tell me, what have you two done so far, to keep Mum convinced? Holding hands? Playing footsies? Snogging? I heard he's quite good at that. Great. Now I am talking about my brothers prowess in snogging. Please forget I ever said/wrote anything and, if you ever find out for yourself, __don't__ tell me. There are things I don't need to know about my siblings. _

_Still, my brother isn't a bad guy and I would be happy for you, if this would turn into a real relationship. Having you as a sister-in-law wound be fun. (And Mum would be too distracted with nagging you about grandchildren to worry about what I do)_

_Anyway, don't let Mum bother you too much. You are not her child and you are grown up. She means well but, sometimes, she needs to be reminded of such things._

_Take care and don't get hit by any curses,_

_Charlie_

* * *

When first reading it, Cassiopeia had shook her head at Charlie's nosiness. Still, knowing that he would lecture even his brother if he annoyed her, was a great feeling. Amongst Slytherins such behavior would have been unacceptable - unless said sibling did something revolting, like marry a Muggle.

The snogging part had made her turn as red as a tomato. There had been a lot of rumors about Bill in her fifth year and even the girls in her dorm had been gushing over the young wizard - far out of earshot from anybody else, of course. Even with her jam-packed daily routine, the witch had been unable to escape listening to the gossip about William Weasley. Now, she couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like, if Molly had not interrupted them.

She gave the letter a halfhearted glare for putting those thoughts into her head, again.

After she had arrived back at her flat, Cassiopeia had already begun to write back, so she reread her letter, before continuing.

* * *

_Hello Charlie,_

_just so you hear it from me, before anyone else tells you, I actually did get hit by a curse, sorry._

_Believe it or not, I do know how it feels to land in the middle of the woods with a portkey. I tried that in the rainforest somewhere in South America but, you are probably worrying about the curse I got hit with, right now._

_Before all else, Charlie I am perfectly __fine__. I got a new scar and that's all. You know I cannot tell you much of what happened, so all I can say right now is, there was unexpected interference during an arrest and I could not block a curse in time. Don't worry too much about it._

For a moment Cassiopeia wondered, whether this was enough to stop Charlie from being concerned about her, so she decided to add a bit to the letter.

_In fact, you will not have to worry about me getting hit by any curses for a while - unless I am getting too slow and one of the Hogwarts students manages to curse me. I know you'll think I completely lost my mind but I agreed to help out Dumbledore and teach DADA for a year._

_About Mulciber, well, I have to admit, I completely forgot about him, until I read your letter. As soon as I figured out what exactly I want to do, I will let you know. I still cannot believe everybody thought we were dating. I mean, Mulciber?! _

_Your brother is certainly better and his behavior, well, we actually did not see each other that often and_

An insistent meowing from Bastet caught her attention.

"What is it, Bastet?" she asked the cat, bowing down to scratch her ear. The animal, after being fed by Alastor Gumboil for almost a week, had been happy to see her, when the witch returned. Looking at her with big amber eyes, Bastet strode over to the door, ignoring her mistress' attempts to pet her. "_Meow!_"

The witch sighed. "It is shortly after six in the morning, Bastet. I will wake everybody up, if I apparate us to Grimmauld Place now."

"_Meow!_" The cat sounded miffed.

"What?" Bastet's behavior confused the witch. Usually, the cat was extremely intelligent and knew if something had to wait.

There was a knock at the door and Cassiopeia automatically drew her wand out of its holster.

"_Meow!_" Bastet seemed terribly smug, while the witch was worried. Who in Salazar's name would visit her at quater past six in the morning? There were not too many people who knew about this flat and most of them were her colleagues, who would have sent a patronus first.

When she looked through the door viewer, she snorted. Of course, if there was one person who had the guts to show up at this time, it would be Severus Snape. The man had never had any sense of propriety.

Cassiopeia opened the door, giving the Potion Master her best glare. "Do you know what time it is?"

The man in black - was he actually wearing Muggle clothing? - glared back. "Yes. Now, may I enter? There are things that should not be discussed on a doorstep."

A bit baffled, the witch opened the door further and let him in. There was no point in closing the door in his face, however much she would have liked to do so.

The wizard followed her into the living room, studying the bare surroundings.

"I was told there is something you need to tell me," Snape drawled while Bastet watched him from the window sill she had jumped on. The cat did not like the Professor. His behavior towards her mistress had always irked Bastet and she seemed not to be about to trust him, now. Her eyes were glowing as she watched the wizard from her elevated position.

"Ah, yes." Now the witch understood what he was doing here. She had not had the chance to meet Snape before the first meeting, since the Dark Lord had kept him busy. He still needed to be told the address of the new headquarter in order to be able to attend the meetings. "There might be something I should tell you."

Snape gave her the same glare he had given her during her time at Hogwarts. Back then, at least during the first four years, it had had some kind of effect on her but now, the black eyes staring at her left her completely cold. They were on even ground now and she could finally keep him in suspense, just like he had often done with her, when it came to important grades.

"Tea?" she calmly asked, already waving her wand at the stove to get the water to boil. "I think I would like a nice black tea."

"I do not have the whole day, Ms Black."

"That's two of us then. How are your potions doing? Do you still spent the holidays inventing new potions and improving on old ones?"

"Would you tell me, now?" the wizard growled. "You Blacks always seem intent on wearing my patience thin."

Thanks to Bill, Cassiopeia knew Sirius and Snape had been forced into a truce by Dumbledore. Judging by the Professor's tone, it did not include leaving her in peace. Pity. Or, perhaps, not. He was the only other Slytherin teaching at Hogwarts. This could actually turn out to be very entertaining.

"Alright, alright. Let me get some parchment."

There still were quill, ink and a couple of parchments laying on her kitchen table, from when she had written the letter to Charlie before Snape arrived. She was set on making an effort to keep the correspondence regular, even if that meant writing in the middle of the night.

A small gasp made her look back at the Potion Master. "What?"

"Pull up your shirt again."

"Excuse me?!" Cassiopeia stared at the man with narrowed eyes. She knew that the man had many quirks but this was a bit much.

Snape sighed. "Your left hip. Your shirt rode up, when you grabbed the parchment. Where did you get that wound from?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean that?" she pulled the fabric away and pointed at the curse wound, "I got that during an arrest a couple of month ago."

"A couple of months ago?" Snape seemed shocked - at least for a Slytherin. "You Blacks are truly mad. Come here."

The witch complied and let the Potion Master have a look at the wound. She knew he was well versed with curses and there was a slim chance that he might know, what the Healers in St. Mungo's didn't.

"Didn't you let the Healers treat the wound?"

"They still don't know what caused it, so they tried a couple of things but nothing really worked."

Snape took a closer look at the wound, his dark eyes narrowing. "Merlin's beard! What did they do?!"

Cassiopeia watched, as the wizard started to wave his wand and mumble something inaudible. After a while, he put his wand away and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is worse than trying to teach Longbottom how to make a decent potion," Snape grumbled, "They completely butchered it up. Who tries to -"

"What exactly is the problem?" Cassiopeia interrupted him. The Potion Master's mumblings told her, he knew what was the matter but not what the problem was.

"With their attempts at healing, they just made everything worse. This curse was invented centuries ago and modern spells interfere with it in a way, that makes healing almost impossible. Did you recently get hit by another spell?"

"Some kind of cutting curse about a week ago. Why?"

Snape signaled for her to wait and hear out the whole story, "The first curse was designed to remove any 'dirt' there might be in your blood. For Muggleborns or halfbloods it would mean a very unpleasant death. I'm surprised you don't know about it. I would have expected it to be one of the first curses they teach young Blacks. Anyway, in most books, the original goal of the curse is not mentioned anymore, only the effects of the curse."

"So the idiot, that blew me through the wall didn't know it doesn't work on purebloods. Or, in case he did know, he didn't know I was a pureblood. But that doesn't explain why the wound won't heal."

"Since I know there is not one drop of Muggle blood inside your veins, I would guess, that the wound would have healed on its own, once the curse realized there is nothing for it to destroy. The attempts at healing seem to have altered the structure of the curse and now it is attacking your body," Snape explained, "Your own magic seems to fight it down as much as it can but you would have needed a long break without any stress for everything to heal. Since you have been under a lot of pressure lately and in combination with the new curse, your body is too weak to fight it off any longer."

Cassiopeia sighed. "Just great. Can you counter the curse?"

"No," the Potion Master shook his head, "I may have been able to do so right after you were first hit with that curse but now... all of those spells have become far too entangled for me to sort out. A Curse Breaker might manage to separate the curses once again and remove them afterwards."

Giving her former Head of House a thankful nod, the witch quickly wrote the address of the headquarter down and handed the paper over.

"There you go."

Snape studied it for a moment, before setting in on fire.

"I was astonished, when Albus told me he was not the Secret Keeper for the headquarter but I understand now. No Black would trust such an important task to somebody else. Not when the ancestral home is involved. Still, you will have to be prepared for being hunted down at some point by the Dark Lord. I may not be able to keep the identity of the Secret Keeper hidden forever."

Cassiopeia accepted the warning with a nod. It was to be expected. "I know. They will come after me, sooner or later anyway. As long as I have not officially chosen a side, they might try to recruit me but, with taking a job at Hogwarts, I guess I have made my intentions quite clear."

The Potion Master stared at her. "Taking a job at Hogwarts?"

"Hasn't Dumbledore told you... right. I actually only accepted yesterday, so he probably didn't have a chance to tell anybody. I will teach DADA for the next year."

"Congratulations, then, Ms Black," Snape said, his voice sounding flat and Cassiopeia wondered, what had annoyed him this time. Probably the fact that he would have to tolerate a Black for a whole year. The Potion Master left her flat quickly after that.

"Well, Bastet," Cassiopeia told the cat, "It looks like he is just as happy to have us around as you are with having him around, again."

Bastet gave her a look that clearly said she felt far superior to Snape and any feelings he may have on the matter of their return to Hogwarts.

The witch's stomach gave a loud growl, reminding her that it needed food. Since there was no edible food left in her kitchen - the few things that had been there had gone moldy during the week she had been away -, the only possibilities were going out for breakfast or apparating to Grimmauld Place. She did not want to call Kreacher over to her flat. He did know of its existence but had never been there, before and the witch was content to leave it exactly like that. Pouring the tea she had just brewed into a mug, she called Bastet over. Grabbing the cat with one hand and the tea with the other, Cassiopeia apparated to Number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

* * *

Apparating while holding a mug was not as easy as one might think and the witch almost spilled some of the liquid over her cat. Said animal hissed as she narrowly avoided the hot tea. Jumping out of the arm of her owner as soon as the door was opened, Bastet strode off into the direction of the garden. Perhaps there would be some mice to hunt and less clumsy humans.

Cassiopeia, meanwhile, was busy cleaning the tea of her shirt. Household spells were truly not her forte and the stain the black tea had left did not vanish. Grumbling as quietly as possible, she was halfway up the stairs to get one of the clean shirt she had left in her room, before she remembered that Bill was currently using it. Her cheeks burned at the thought of walking in on the sleeping Curse Breaker. Who knew what he wore to bed. It was hot, so perhaps he slept shirtless...

Shaking her head to turn her thoughts back on a safer track, she made her way back down and into the kitchen. At least she would get some food, a clean shirt could wait.

To her surprise, Molly Weasley had already set the table for breakfast and was currently making some scrambled eggs. "Good morning, Molly."

The older witch turned around and a smile crossed her face when she saw Cassiopeia. "I had hoped you would change your mind and come over for breakfast already. The more, the merrier, isn't it?"

Noticing the tea stain, she shook her head and cleaned it with a wave of her wand. "You should not walk around like that," Molly stated with a frown.

Cassiopeia shrugged. "I tried to clean it but I am horrible at household spells and when I wanted to get a clean shirt... Well, I did not want to wake Bill up, so I had to leave it the way it was," she explained.

"Bill is already awake. He's outside in the garden. I had never expected him of all of my sons to turn into a morning person. He loved to sleep in when he was a child. Not like Charlie, who was always up and about early in the morning." Giving the younger witch a onceover, she continued, "I will teach you some of the most important household spells. You cannot raise children without knowing them. I know your family had house-elves for doing that kind of work but since I met Kreacher... I always wanted to have a house-elf so I could spent more time with the children but now I am happy I did everything myself. Come here."

Blinking in surprise, Cassiopeia complied without thinking. She looked at the dozens of kitchen utensils in front of her and wondered, what she was supposed to do now. She had never seen half of the things in front of her in all of her life.

"Here, we'll start with a simple cleaning spell. The eggs are finished but the pan needs to be cleaned. Now, watch!" Molly made a short stabbing motion with her wand and with a clear intonation of the spell, the remaining bits of egg and the grease were gone. "Intention is important with such spells but it is more important to _feel_ what they have to do."

This confused the younger witch. Intention was always the most important thing about a spell, wasn't it? If you didn't have the determination to see the effects of the spell you were about to cast, it became exponentially weaker.

"That is the point most witches have problems with," Molly Weasley went on. "They focus too much on the intention to get something clean, they forget what it entails to clean the object. If you are annoyed at having to clean something, you will not be very thorough when doing it manually. It is the same with the spells."

"Mum, do you have to torture Peia with this so early in the morning?" came Bill's voice from the door. He was carrying Bastet in his arms, who was purring happily and giving her owner a pointed look. The witch placed the tea mug she was still holding on the table and gave the cat an apologetic shrug.

"It's not that bad, actually, Bill. I just learned that feelings are far more important than intention, when it comes to household spells. It's no wonder they never worked for me," she explained.

The Curse Breaker gave her a skeptical look, before setting the cat down on the floor and Bastet rubbed her head on his legs before leaving the kitchen. "If you say so. But I think learning new spells should wait until after breakfast. You can concentrate better if your stomach is full."

As if it had waited for that line, Cassiopeia's stomach gave a loud growl, reminding her it was still empty. Bill chuckled as the witch gave him an embarrassed smile.

"Bill, be a dear and wake your brothers up and Sirius and Remus as well. Your father should be awake already. We'd better get an early start on the cleaning. Cassiopeia, could you wake up Ginny and Hermione?" Molly asked the two. "The sooner they get down here, the sooner we can have breakfast."

"No problem, Mum."

* * *

Getting Ginny and Hermione out of bed was easy. The two witches were already awake when Cassiopeia knocked at their door and made it to the kitchen in short time. Bill seemed to have more trouble. Arthur was the first to show up at the breakfast table, ten minutes after Ginny and Hermione had done so. Remus did not take much longer. Five minutes after he had sat down at the table, a very tired looking Sirius came down as well, followed by the twins.

"Ron will need a few minutes," one of them said. Cassiopeia would guess him to be Fred but she had not spent enough time with them to be sure. She would have to find a way to keep them apart before September, otherwise teaching those two could turn out to be very taxing. "Bill is staying upstairs to make sure Ronniekins does not fall asleep, again. He says we should not wait on them."

These news were received cheerfully and everybody started to pile food on their tables. With the noise they all made, Cassiopeia almost overheard what one of the twins said to the other: "Not that Bill needs to stay upstairs. The surprise we left for Ron in the shower should be enough to wake him up."

Sirius seemed to have heard it as well, since he was leaning over to the twins, probably to ask them what exactly they had done. Cassiopeia could not hear what they told her brother but, judging by the grin on his face, he approved. Deciding to wait and see what would happen, the witch started to butter a toast but a high pitched scream interrupted her halfway.

Molly was out of her seat in no time but Arthur held her back. "Don't worry, Bill is upstairs as well. He will help Ron."

Giving the door a worried glance, the Weasley matriarch sat down again and everybody was waiting anxiously for Ron and Bill to come downstairs. When they finally entered the kitchen, Cassiopeia couldn't help but laugh. Ron was covered in feathers from head to toe, looking like an overgrown orange bird.

"What have you two done?" he shouted at the twins.

Giving their brother identical smirks, they said: "We managed to - "

" - improve our canary cream. It - "

" - now comes in liquid form - "

" - as well and the effects - "

" - last longer."

Molly glared at the twins. "Turn him back to normal, this instant!" she demanded. "Haven't I told you no more of your joke products?! This is -"

"Oh, come on, Molly. It is a joke, no permanent harm done. Let them have some fun, this house could use some laughter," Sirius interjected and immediately became a target of her wrath as well. The wizard did not accept her behavior as silently as her sons did, though and shouted back.

Cassiopeia pushed her plate away, having suddenly lost her appetite. The conversation between Molly and Sirius reminded her far too much of the one the latter and her mother had had, shortly before the young wizard had left his family. She had been too young to fully understand what had been said back then but she remembered her brother's posture and tone very well. That particular conversation had taken place in the kitchen as well. Sirius had, like he did now, planted his hands firmly on the table leaning towards his adversary and almost growled. It reminded her of the growl of his animagus form, the grim.

The worst about the memory of that fight was the look Sirius had given her, when he stormed out of the room. There had been so much pain but also so much relieve in it. By now, she knew the pain had been for having to leave her behind and the relieve for leaving his mother behind. He would not have managed to endure living in the Black household for a minute longer. It was something his sister could not fault him for.

Not willing to listen to them any longer, she made her way to the door.

"Where are you going, Peia?" Bill asked.

"Somewhere else. If I want to hear someone shouting at and berating people in this house, I will talk to my mother. I'll be in Reg's room, if you need me."

With that, she left the kitchen.

* * *

A.N.: Not so much of our sweet and attentive Bill here but he will be back next chapter, so stay tuned!


	14. Old memory, new loyalty and jealousy

Thanks for all of your lovely reviews. As promised, some fluffy Bill &amp; Peia time

* * *

Cassiopeia carefully shut the door behind her, even though she was in a mood to slam it close. She slowly looked around, studying the familiar surroundings.  
The room was surprisingly clean and the witch wondered, if someone had been in here to clean but she could not see a single object out of place. Regulus bedroom looked just like it always had, Slytherin green and silver with dark wood.  
Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the bed, closing her eyes and trying to calm down.

The witch had not been in Regulus room for much more than five minutes, before she heard soft steps on the stairs, followed by a hesitant knock.

"Peia? Can I come in?" she heard Bill ask tentatively. Cassiopeia blinked away the tears that threatened to spill over and took a deep breath, before telling him to enter.

"I brought you some toast and tea, if you want to continue breakfast," the Curse Breaker said quietly. When he saw the distraught witch, sitting on the bed of her dead brother and fiddling with his blanket, he put the items he carried on the nightstand and sat down next to her. Carefully putting an arm around her shoulders, always ready to pull away should she seem uncomfortable, he tried to sooth her. The Curse Breaker was a bit surprised when she dropped her head onto his shoulder but tightened his hold on her on instinct.

Cassiopeia was angry with herself. This was not her usual behavior. She knew she was being irrational but, somehow, she could not help but be afraid Sirius would leave again. This was something she did not want to let happen. She had already missed out on almost twenty years and that was more than enough.  
Bill's hand, rubbing circles over her arm, somewhat calmed her. She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of honey soap and something spicy. The scent reminded her of the bazaars Bill had described to her, even though she had never been there herself. Had he soaked up that smell while he was in Egypt?

"They used to have fights like this, you know," Cassiopeia said after a few minutes of silence. "My mother and Sirius. There was rarely a day without her shouting at him for being a Gryffindor, for being a prankster, for talking to muggle-borns, for... anything, actually. I don't remember much of those fights. I was very young and Regulus always grabbed me and carried me out of the room, when they started. Either we went outside and he let me fly on his broom with him, or he would read a book to me, here in his room, far away from them."

The witch got off of the bed and walked to the dark, wooden bookcase on the opposite wall. She drew a finger over the spines of the books, that stood there, until she found the one she was looking for. It was a bit thinner than the other books, with a slightly tattered leather cover. "This was always my favorite. _The Fountain of Fair Fortune_. A wonderful tale. Regulus had to hide the book from mother, since the story ends with a witch marrying a Muggle. He would read the story to me when the fights became particularly nasty and we could hear the voices even up here. That book was the only one, that could keep me distracted enough not to ask what Mother and Sirius were fighting about or being frightened by Mother's shrill voice."

Absentmindedly turning the worn pages of the book, Cassiopeia continued, "One day, when Father and Regulus were out, buying a new broom, since Reg had been chosen as seeker for the house team, Mother and Sirius got into a fight again, right at the table. It was shortly before Christmas. I remember, because I was trying to make a Christmas Card for Aunt Cassie and I needed help because the glitter wouldn't stick on the card. I didn't notice them arguing before I entered the kitchen. I was completely focused on the card... they were arguing about something I did not understand. I had never seen Mother so livid. Her portrait is tame, compared to what she said and did that day. Perhaps it's just worse in my memory but she frightened me and there was no one to distract me. I was rooted in place. Sirius shouted back at first but he became silent after a while and left the room. He never came back after that."

"Where did he go?" Bill asked, watching her from the bed.

"The Potters. He stayed with them, until he turned seventeen, then he bought his own flat," the witch giggled humorless. "Uncle Alphard had left him all of his money, so he did not have to worry about finances. Poor Uncle got blasted off the family tree for that. I never understood why mother did this. With Father's death Sirius became the Head of the House, even though he was in Askaban. Father had never officially disinherited him, it had always been Mother's doing."

Turning back to Bill, she said, "Sorry I interrupted breakfast like that. The memory was just..."

The Curse Breaker gave her a lopsided grin. "Hey, don't worry about that. You did the right thing. You should have seen everybody's faces, when you just left the room. Mum was stunned into silence. If my siblings did not like you before, they will worship you now. Getting Mum to shut up, once she started, is very difficult. I don't think any of us have truly managed that before."

Cassiopeia smiled back, albeit a bit weak. "Avoidance has always been my tactic, when it comes to shouting mothers. It's what I learned from an early age on. Try to get out of the room as soon as possible, before she can think of other things you or someone else may have done wrong. My mother was a bit calmer, after Sirius left but with Reg's death...," the witch trailed off and picked up a framed picture from Regulus' desk. It had been taken about a year before his death, on a sunny day during Easter Break, outside in the garden. Regulus and Cassiopeia were sitting on the grass, smiling happily into the camera. The people in the picture were waving at her, the boy periodically looking at the younger sister in his arms, as if to check that she was alright.

Bill got up from the bed and studied the picture over her shoulder.

"You look cute with all those flowers in your hair," he said, one hand carefully stoking through the witch's long curls. Cassiopeia looked back over her shoulder. "I only look cute when I have flowers in my hair?"

Tapping her nose once with his index finger, the Curse Breaker answered with a smile. "You were cute with flowers in your hair but you are beautiful now."

The witch felt a blush rise on her cheeks. She knew Blacks were generally considered pretty or handsome but she had never been called beautiful to her face. To hear the word out of the mouth of a man, who had been followed by flocks of girls during school made her stomach flutter. Abashed, she looked away from his face, choosing to study the floor in front of her instead.

"You don't get compliments often, do you?"

Cassiopeia shook her head. She didn't, at least concerning her looks. Complements on her skills were rare as well, since she had left school. At the _Hit Wizard Office_, you were expected to be good. If you weren't, you would be dead very soon.

"The I shall make it my goal to give you at least one per day," Bill declared, stroking her cheek. The witch's blush intensified and she looked back up over her shoulder at the wizard. The Curse Breaker smiled at her, before pulling her fast into his chest, his arms going around the witch's waist, keeping her in place. They stood like this for a while, Bill's head resting on top of Cassiopeia's, both looking at the picture in the witch's hands.

_" - blood traitors all over the house. If the Mistress knew they threw out - "_

The creaking of the door and Kreacher's mumbles had Cassiopeia look up.

"What is the young Mistress doing in Master Regulus' room? _Far more worthy of his noble blood the young Master was. Never disappointed his poor mother_."

The witch raised an eyebrow at the house-elf's mumbles. "And what are you doing in here, exactly, Kreacher?" she questioned him. The house-elf gave her a halfhearted bow. "Kreacher is cleaning. Master Regulus' room has to be kept clean."

Regulus had always been Kreacher's favorite but that the house-elf, while disobeying her order to keep the house clean, would look after the room of the deceased Black surprised Cassiopeia. She put the picture back to where it had been. "Don't let me stop you, then. Go on cleaning but don't move anything. The room is to be kept exactly the way it was, when Reg left it."

The house-elf gave the witch a wary look but nodded. "Master Regulus was a good boy. _Kreacher would never move anything that was his_."

"Very good, Kreacher. I will leave you to your work, then." Cassiopeia gestured at Bill to leave the room with her but, before she had reached the door, Kreacher called out. "Bad Master Sirius has been throwing out Black heirlooms. Goblin made silver and jewelry. Stuck them into a bag to be thrown away like trash, he did. Not like young Mistress, who keeps them at Gringotts, where they are safe. Those identical redheads grabbed one of the vials of old Master Arcturus and hid it in their room. Kreacher has watched them. Dangerous draught is in there..."

Cassiopeia's grandfather Arcturus had had a collection of some of the nastiest potions there were. The witch did not even want to know where he had acquired some of them, since they were quite illegal and Arcturus had had no talent in brewing at all. The potions had been kept in a cabinet in the drawing room and she had deemed that save enough, thinking that no one would be searching the shelves or daring to take something from there. Apparently, she had been wrong.

Studying the house-elf for a moment, Cassiopeia got an idea. Kreacher seemed to be overly fond of the Black heirlooms and he deserved a reward for warning her about the experiments the Weasley twins were making in their room. At least now she could stop them before they blew up the house. Some potions, especially if they had been brewed a long time ago, should not be tampered with.

Perhaps giving him something of the Black family would secure the house-elf's loyalty and she could count on more warnings in the future. A lot of witches and wizards were not watching what they were saying around house-elves. Kreacher could prove to be an invaluable source of information. Even if the only people coming and going were members of the Order, it could never hurt to have an ace up your sleeve. Despite everything Dumbledore had said, Cassiopeia did not trust all of them and she preferred to be one step ahead, should anybody decide to cause trouble.

"Do you know where those bags are, Kreacher?" she asked and the house-elf confirmed it with a nod. "Then bring them here, all of them."

Kreacher disappeared for a moment, before coming back with two heavy bags. He let them fall to the floor and their content rolled out.

"Is that the good china?!" Cassiopeia picked up one of the plates and examined it. It was indeed the good china with the family crest delicately painted in the middle, a crack running right through it. A wave of her wand and a mumbled "_Reparo"_ later, it was as good as new again. Carefully putting the plate back on the floor, making sure it could not be stepped on by accident, she studied the other items.  
There was jewelry and a couple of old books as well as the goblin made silver goblets, that had only been used at special occasions, like weddings or the birth of a child, on the floor. A shimmer of green and silver caught her attention. "That's Great-aunt Cassie's favorite necklace!"

Grabbing the delicate silver chain with the emerald pendant of the floor, she ordered, "Once you are done cleaning the room, you will put the china exactly where it was before. If anybody tries to remove it, again, you have my permission to use any means necessary to stop them. This is family history. It may not always be a good history but it will _not_ be thrown away. It will remain as it was, so it can serve as a reminder."

The house elf looked at her with big eyes. "Young Mistress will keep family heirlooms?"

"Yes. Maybe not all of them in the house, since there seem to be too many idiots around, that have no idea of the danger they pose but I will keep them," Cassiopeia promised, as she put her great-aunt's favorite necklace next to the one, that held her father's ring. She was normally not one to wear much jewelry but those two were things, that held meaning to her.

Noticing a small golden signet ring, that had belonged to Regulus as a child, she decided that it would be Kreacher's reward. She conjured up a thin piece of leather and threaded the ring onto it. "Come here, Kreacher."

The old house-elf obediently stepped closer and waited for her next move, watching her warily with his dull eyes. Cassiopeia dropped to her knees and knotted the necklace around Kreacher's neck. "This belonged to Reg, as you know, and I want you to have it. Wear it and do my brother proud... And tell me if anybody tries to take something from its rightful place."

Kreacher's eyes filled with tears and he gave the surprised witch a hug, his whole body shaking. "Kreacher will honor Master Regulus. Kreacher will start with cleaning the whole house. Young Mistress should not have to live in such a dirty place. Not becoming of the ancestral home of the Black family. Kreacher will clean immediately, yes. There is much to do for Kreacher..."

Cassiopeia had never seen Kreacher work with such enthusiasm in all of her live. As soon as he had let go of her, he started collecting the items, that had fallen out of the bags, sorting and stacking them with the uttermost care.

"Oh, and Kreacher, please remove all of the pictures you can find of Uncle Cygnus' daughters. It will do the family name no good, if it is associated with them and we don't want the family name ruined, do we?" When she heard no complaints, she left the house-elf to his work, wondering where Bill might have gone.

* * *

She did not even have to search, though, since every single person that currently lived in the house, was standing in the second level corridor, waiting anxiously for the young witch to come down. Cassiopeia stopped halfway down the stairs when she noticed them, silently wishing there was another way down, before letting a blank mask slip over her face.

"Peia?" Sirius asked, coming up the stairs and hugging her tightly. "I'm sorry if I upset you. I didn't think - "

"You have nothing to be sorry about, brother," Cassiopeia interrupted him. "You are entitled to defend your opinion. There is no need to hold back because of me."

"But - "

"No buts. Though, there are a couple of things I would like to discuss with all of you. If we all want to live in this house together, there need to be a couple of rules and, yes, I know you are all Gryffindors. My rules, however, _will_ be obeyed, no exceptions, no toeing the line, nothing." The last words were said with a side-glance at the twins. "There are things in this house, that should not be touched by anybody, who does not have extensive knowledge about them. I thought this had been clear before but, apparently, I have been wrong."

The witch shrugged off her brother's arms and made her way to the next stairs. "We will continue talking in the drawing room."

The seven Weasleys plus Hermione, Sirius and Remus followed her down to the first floor. It was the first time Cassiopeia had seen the drawing room since Molly and her children had started cleaning the house.

The dust was completely gone, the sofas and the cushions appeared to have been washed and the stains on the carpet were gone. Only the buzzing coming from the curtains was still there. Perhaps Sirius had been right with his guess about doxys, the witch thought. Judging by the tattered look of the curtains, it was actually very probable. She would have to remember telling Kreacher to find new curtains, once they got rid of the doxys. Now that she thought about it, it was probably a good idea to tell the house-elf to replace anything that was beyond hope. The witch gave a mental sigh, before turning at her audience.

"Alright, first things first. It has come to my attention, that something, that has been stored in one of the cabinets in this room is no longer where it is supposed to be. I strongly advice to put it back before dinner tonight, or _I_ will get it." She let her eyes travel over the people in front of her, stopping shortly on the twins to give them a pointed look. The two of them had the grace to look at least somewhat guilty. "And that is not something you want me to do. What was taken is nothing to be handled lightly, so, for your own benefit and for that of all of the people currently living in this house, _put it back_."

Pausing for a moment, the witch though about how to word her rules. She didn't want to set too many of them, because she knew that would only increase the chances of a Gryffindor breaking them just for fun. So, in order to keep everybody in line, she to set a few very clear lines, that should not be crossed.

"Alright. I have put Kreacher in charge of the cleaning, including things that will be or will not be thrown away. Things _only_ get thrown out, if he or I approve of it, no discussion." Cassiopeia gave Sirius a sharp look, as he started to open his mouth. "Some items in this house - believe it or not - still hold a sentimental value for some of us, namely _me _and I would be very thankful if I did not find them in a garbage bag ever again. Next point. There are still dangerous items in the house, even if they are not cursed or look harmless, so be careful what you touch. And last, there will be no fighting at the table and no shouting, not by anyone. There may be more rules in the future, as I will add them as I see fit but, for now, I think this should be sufficient. Is there anything one of you would like me to add to the list?"

"But, how are we supposed to ask that house-elf, if we can throw something away? He doesn't even talk to us, only mumbles insults," Ron asked, a disgusted look on the face when he talked about the old house-elf.

"He will talk to you, don't worry about that," Cassiopeia answered, waving him off. Now that he had officially been given permission to protect the family heirlooms, Kreacher would be a real pain in their backside, if they tried to do anything. The witch almost hoped someone would disobey the rules, just so she could see what Kreacher would do. She knew from personal experience how sneaky the house-elf could be and how grimly he could protect the Black family. Her Slytherin side was just a little bit curious.

Hermione looked unhappy at the news. The young witch's eyebrows were furrowed and she took a step forward before speaking up. "Kreacher is old. He should not have to work at all. Don't you think he deserve retirement? We can clean the house without his help if we work hard enough."

Cassiopeia snorted. "Do you want to see Kreacher's head next to the others at the stairs?" she asked and the muggle-born witch gave her a horrified look. Not that Cassiopeia would ever do that but the young girl needed to understand that house-elves wanted to work and were unhappy, if you hindered them. The only thing that would ever stop Kreacher was death, be it natural or by beheading. If Cassiopeia got her way, it would be natural and the collection of house-elf heads would be moved out of the house as soon as possible - meaning as soon as someone figured out how to get them off that dratted wall. The witch suspected her mother had used the same permanent-sticking charm on the heads as on her portrait.

"You cannot honestly think to put the house-elf in charge of the house. You've seen the way the house looks. He hasn't done anything to keep the house clean in the last years, why should he change now?" Molly protested. "You need someone, who -"

"Kreacher is the house-elf of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and he is responsible for keeping up the house. I reminded him of his duties to the family and he will fulfill them all," Cassiopeia answered, certain she was right. She had finally figured out what drove the house-elf to act the way he did and she knew how to use that to her own advantage. She wasn't a Slytherin for nothing after all.

The Weasley Matriarch was not convinced, though. "I still think, that it is not -"

"I think, it is time for Peia and I to head to Diagon Alley," Bill interrupted his mother. "She needs to figure out which books she would like to use for her classes, so we will go to Flourish and Blotts and have a look around. They need to send out the booklist as soon as possible and the earlier we go there, the more time she has to choose."

"But -"

The door falling shut behind Cassiopeia, who was being pulled out of the room by Bill, swallowed up anything Molly would have liked to say - and the witch was happy about that. She knew the older woman meant well but there were some things she did not want to discuss with anybody. Twenty-three should be old enough to make decisions on your own and - considering her job and the fact, that she had been on her own since her mother died shortly after she had finished Hogwarts - she had enough experience in doing so.

Bill stopped, once they had reached the front door. "I'm so sorry. I know my mother can be a handful sometimes," he apologized, seeming slightly embarrassed as he rubbed his neck. "It is difficult for her to give up control over the keeping of the house and she tends to think she knows better because of her experience. Well, you know, seven children and the household..."

The witch just sighed. "Kreacher is responsible for this house, none the less. I finally figured out how to secure his loyalty, so I will not risk losing it again. He needs to have this task. Plus, he knows this house better than anybody, including me. There is no one more capable of returning it to good condition than him."

"Do you want to go to Flourish and Blotts? We kind of have to leave the house now and return with a selection of books," Bill ask hesitantly and added, "You could go on your own, though. I can understand if you've had enough of me and my family - or any redhead - for the day. I'll just spent the day somewhere in a park or something and you could notify me when you are finished, so we can return at the same time."

Cassiopeia thought about it. Perhaps leaving the house and thinking of other things was not bad, right now - and she needed to tell Dumbledore about the books she wanted the students to buy as soon as possible, so the lists could finally be sent out.

"The sooner I start with the books, the better. I don't mind doing it now and, if you want to, you can come with me. Having another pair of eyes to look over the books may be useful."

The Curse Breaker gave her a beautiful smile and opened the front door for her.

* * *

Bill apparated them to the _Leaky Cauldron_ and from there, they went into Diagon Alley.

They took their time reaching Flourish and Blotts. Cassiopeia was in no hurry to return to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place and Bill seemed to have all the time in the world, since he never pushed the witch to hurry up. Instead, he patiently followed her into every shop.

Some of the witches and wizards they passed gave the pair strange looks, probably wondering why a Gryffindor Weasley would ever date someone as dark as a Black or why a proud pureblooded Black would even consider a blood-traitor. Neither Bill nor Cassiopeia cared much about those looks, though.

Cassiopeia's senses were still working overtime in the crowd but Bill's presence relaxed her a bit. He seemed so comfortable walking down the Alley, that the witch could not help but feel calmer herself. Perhaps it was a bit careless of her - and she could almost hear Mad-Eye shouting '_constant vigilance' _in her head - but, how could there be a thread out there, if someone like Bill walked around without any fear of danger?

When they reached the Magical Menagerie, the Curse Breaker pulled the witch into the shop, where he proceeded to browse the shelves for cat treats. A bit confused, Cassiopeia asked him, what he needed cat treats for. He did not own a cat as far as she knew.

"Bastet has to survive being in the same house as my family, right now. I may not know your cat as well as you do but I am sure she prefers silence," Bill explained. "I think she deserves a treat for putting up with them, especially the twins."

Smiling at his thoughtfulness, Cassiopeia pointed out her cat's favorite treat. "Don't ask me why she likes that one - I think it smells rotten - but it is her absolute favorite. She'll love you, if you buy it for her."

After the Magical Menagerie, the witch dragged him into Rosa Lee Teabags to stock up on her favorite tea. The orange spiced black tea they sold was perfect - at least in Cassiopeia's opinion - and she found something new to try every time. Not that she visited the shop very often, considering how much she hated the crowd in the street but the shop had excellent owl service and the owner often sent new samples with her order.

At the bookstore, the future DADA Professor panicked a little. Of course she had been standing in front of the section for books about defense before, but she had never had to judge which ones were suitable for teaching others. There were some, she remembered from her own time as a student but not all of them had been good in her opinion. Then again, she had judged most of her schoolbooks to be boring. How did one choose the right books from this huge selection? The witch suddenly had far more respect for those teachers, that had managed to choose somewhat interesting books.

"Well, were do we start?" Bill asked, studying the selection of books in front of him.

Cassiopeia gave him a blank stare. "I have no idea. Salazar, why did I take this job if I already fail to choose books?"

"Which books did you learn the most from?" the Curse Breaker asked and the witch pulled out three books. _The Essential Defense Against the Dark Arts_ had been a great book, as had _Self-Defensive Spellwork _ and _Practical Defense Against the Dark Arts._ Their choice of defensive spells was excellent and the descriptions were understandable.

"Those are good. They might work for third to fifth year. But that would still leave us with four more years, where I have absolutely no idea."

After asking one of the shop assistants which books had been on the list for the Hogwarts students the last years, Bill and Cassiopeia started their hunt for more suitable books. Most of those, that had been used in the two previous years were really good, but those used before had the witch shaking her head. _Holidays with Hags_? What in Merlin's name were the students supposed to learn from this book? There were no descriptions of wand movements, no list of characteristics one could identify a hag by. Absolutely nothing.

Bill was a great help. Thanks to six younger siblings, he had heard a lot of complaints about bad books and could sort out some of those Cassiopeia had put in the maybe-pile after skimming through them.

In the end, after almost two hours of reading and discussing, Cassiopeia decided to use a mix between those books Mad-Eye and Remus had used and two books she had used herself to prepare for her N.E.W.T.s. In her opinion, Remus had focused too much on defense against creatures while Mad-Eye's choice was too focused on duels. Their choices fit their personalities but, at a time when Voldemort was returning, she needed to cover all aspects. The Death Eaters would be attacking with vile and dangerous spells but Voldemort would also be recruiting amongst the darker creatures once again.

Of course, she did not know what the imposter had truly taught in the end, so there might be differences from what she expected. Perhaps she would need to test the skills of the second-years and up, so she knew where they stood. Especially the fifth and seventh year students needed extensive knowledge and practice, if they wanted to pass the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s with acceptable grades.

"This is a good choice, Peia," Bill told her, when she showed him her final decision. "Those are books the students can truly learn from. You will make a great teacher."

Cassiopeia looked up at the Curse Breaker, pleased at the compliment but unsure, if it was really true. "Do you really think so?"

Bill tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. "I am sure. You have more than enough theoretical knowledge and you have the practical experience. Who could prepare the children better for what they might have to face one day than someone, who did it on a daily base? If they do not understand why a spell might be useful, you can give them an example, where it saved somebody's life. That will give them the motivation to study it until they can do it perfectly."

When they left Flourish and Blotts, Bill carrying the books, since he had insisted on that, it was already noon.

* * *

The shops were less frequented at this hour but the cafés were full of people having lunch.

"Hey, Bill!" a dark haired man, sitting at one of the small tables of a café waved at them. Cassiopeia recognized him as one of Bill's coworkers she had seen at Gringotts two weeks ago. The Curse Breaker, slinging his free arm around the witch's waist, stopped at the table.

"Jack. Working Saturdays again?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, well, someone has to and since you rather enjoy the day shopping with your girlfriend, Dave, Lucy, the new intern and I have to do the work."

Right on cue, three more people appeared at the small table, carrying various dishes with them. There was an elderly man, who plopped down in a chair with a sigh and two young women, one of them the former Beauxbaton Champion Fleur Delacour. The blond woman was eyeing Bill with interest, especially the arm around Cassiopeia's waist. Said witch fought down the urge to raise an eyebrow and settled for the Slytherin blank mask instead.

"Not even getting a break when you're not working, are you, Bill?" the elderly man asked. "Shopping with my wife is always exhausting. I don't know where she takes the energy from. We walk up and down the Alley the whole day and she just keeps piling bags into my arms."

Bill laughed at the comment. "It's my own fault then. I suggested we go to Diagon Alley, since Peia needed to decide which books the Hogwarts students need to buy. Though we did end up getting a bit side tracked." He lifted the bags with the tea and the cat treats.

The second witch, Lucy, gave Cassiopeia a onceover. "You're the Black girl, right?"

This time, the eyebrow did rise. "Cassiopeia Black, yes," she said, her tone carefully kept neutral.

"I remember you play Quidditch. It was your first game and you managed to score five times against me," Lucy said with a smile. "I was the Ravenclaw keeper."

Studying the other witch more closely, Cassiopeia could remember the seventh-year Ravenclaw keeper with the short brown hair she had faced during her first game for the Slytherin house team. It had been a heated game and she had almost been knocked off her broom by a bludger twice. She still could not remember how she had managed to stay on the broom when the second one had hit her hard and everything after was a bit fuzzy. "Merlin, I remember. The whole game was a chaos. How many penalties were there?"

"I think it was about sixteen on your side and twenty-five on ours."

The two witches got so immersed into their conversation about the Quidditch game, Cassiopeia at first did not notice the flirty behavior of the French witch. When she saw from the corner of her eye how the witch flipped her hair over her shoulder the second time within a minute whilst giggling, she started to study the actions of the blonde more closely. The way she fluttered her eyelashes at the Curse Breaker and leaned forward to give him a good view into the plunging neckline of her silk blouse did not sit well with the former Slytherin at all.

"I am still 'aving trouble with ze forms. Perhaps I need to eemprove my Eeengish. Would you be willing to 'elp me out?"

"Eh, sure, that's no problem. I can explain the forms to you, again," Bill agreed to Fleur's request without hesitation and Cassiopeia was a bit astonished. Did he not recognize she was trying to flirt with him? Even she, who was anything but an expert in flirting, had noticed. Or, did he recognize it and actually wanted to flirt with her? Somehow, that thought really bugged her.

Bill's behavior at the few occasions they had seen each other since the dinner at the Burrow had been so attentive and sweet, Cassiopeia grew comfortable around him, something she rarely did. Then there had been the almost kiss in the entrance hall before the first meeting of the Order. Even though she did not want to admit it, even to herself, she had been disappointed that Molly had interrupted them. A week later he had kissed her, it had been a chaste kiss on the forehead but a kiss none the less. At least amongst the Slytherins this was not done casually. When he had come upstairs to make sure she was alright, after she left breakfast, the witch had been very pleased at the attention she had received and the way he could make her feel better in such a short time span. Cassiopeia had never opened up so quickly to anybody and being brushed aside because of a witch who was distinctly part-Veela hurt. She knew their relationship was fake and she had no right to be jealous but she was. The witch recognized the feeling, even if she had never felt it because of a man before.

"Would Monday be alright for you? We could 'ave dinner togezzer afterwards."

"Monday's fine," Bill said, a smile gracing his face.

Lucy, noticing Cassiopeia's darkening expression, interfered. "Why don't you let Jack help her, Bill. You have much to do as it is and I am sure your girlfriend would like some attention as well."

"That's no problem. I can help Fleur with her English and I know the forms just as well as you do, Bill," Jack agreed enthusiastically.

Bill shook his head, declining the offer, while still smiling at Fleur. "I am the one responsible for her, so I will do it. Peia understands that. We can still spent time together after I helped Fleur. She's always up late anyway."

_Great to know I come after that French witch, _Cassiopeia thought angrily_. Let's go out with the part-Veela because Cassiopeia will be home anyway when I return. The relationship is only fake, so there is no need to pay any attention to her, once I found something better. Who cares what it looks like in front of other people? Well, not with me, Mr. Weasley!_

"Why don't you start teaching her right now?" she snapped at Bill, taking the bags with her purchases out of his hands. "I have other things to do, anyway. It was nice meeting you again, Lucy. I'll see you at home, Bill. I hope you'll be up late, because that's when I'm returning."

The redhead stared at her in bewilderment. "Peia? What -"

Cassiopeia did not stay to listen to what he wanted to say but pulled up the hood of her black cloak and headed straight for Knockturn Alley instead.

* * *

Tss, tss, such nice fluff and then Bill just had to go and ruin it all...

I probably won't be able to update next Sunday (visiting family + Easter = stress + no time) but I will try my best.

Stay tuned for the next chapters to find out if Bill manages to get back into Peia's good graces. I already have the scene planned out (and mostly written) but I would love to hear your ideas.


	15. Acquisitions at Knockturn Alley

Back after the short break! I hope you like the new chapter.

* * *

Knockturn Alley was still as grubby as it had been, when she had visited it the last time. Despite what people might think, Knockturn Alley was not the place many of the more dangerous criminals hung around, so the _Hit Wizards_ rarely visited this place.  
None of the houses made of dark stone was as pristinely kept as the shops in Diagon Alley but the folk on the street didn't mind. Most of them looked shabby as well and Cassiopeia knew there were a lot of dishonest characters around, she could pick them out of the crowd easily. If you knew what to look for, you had absolutely no trouble finding them. Still, they posed no thread. They were dishonest but not dangerous.  
She kept her hood up nonetheless. If people knew who she was, most would not dare to try nick something from her. But there was need to advertise her presence to anybody lest word reached the Ministry and some idiot started poking his nose into things he should better stay far away from. If there was one thing she truly didn't need, it was drawing attention to her actions. Still, right now, she would not mind playing a little with unsuspecting prey. The poor fellow, that crossed her today would learn a lesson he would never forget.

It had been a while, since she had last been to the shops here but she remembered the interesting places and how to obtain legal and... not quite so legal objects from them.  
Cobb &amp; Webb's for example, often had a good variety of the more obscure books. You just had to look in between the books about giant wars in the Middle Ages. Nobody would ever suspect to find anything interesting in that section. As a child, she had once picked up one of the books used as camouflage, curious what they were about. It was one of the few books she had put back right after the first page. Either, it would give you a headache, trying to understand the content and keeping up with the names or it would put you right to sleep. Right now, the witch felt like buying one of those darker books hidden in between. Maybe gaining knowledge of a new, dark and very nasty curse would curb her urge to use such a spell. The people that met her today would surely appreciate that. On the other hand, she could always use someone to test them on...

Cassiopeia knew she was going a bit overboard - once again - but it was the last thing she cared about. Black's were very sour losers by nature and she absolutely detested coming up second to anybody. This, paired with the fact that Bill had flirted with someone else in front of people, who believed her to be his girlfriend, would have been enough to make any Black boil.

The real problem was, that she had let herself believe there was actually a chance Bill might like her. She should have known no one would want to date a Black if there were other choices available, especially French part-Veelas. Where was the appeal in marrying into a dark family, full of Death Eaters, mass murderers and generally mad people?  
Right, there was none.  
So, mostly, Cassiopeia was fuming about her own stupidity. This was why Black's married for blood status and not for feelings. There was less trouble that way. Maybe sticking to the traditions was not as stupid, as she once thought. Perhaps the people, who started it, had been quite intelligent - or had had their heart broken.

Cobb &amp; Webb's smelled as moldy as she remembered from the few times she had been there with her mother. The lights were still as dim and the room as jam-packed, as it had been years ago. The shop assistant was different, though. Cassiopeia clearly remembered a slimy young man with crooked teeth instead of the woman in magenta colored robes, that was now waiting for customers to enter the shop.  
Taking her time to browse everything, the witch noticed a few books without a title on the cover, that piqued her interest. Where was the sense in not printing a title on the cover? How should anybody ever be able to find them if they were looking for it?  
Opening the first of the books, she saw a grim glare at her from one of the pages. Cassiopeia petted the image with one finger and the animal gave her a confused look, before snapping at it. When she drew her finger further over the page, the grim followed it, trying to hunt it down. Giggling, the witch decided to buy the book and rip out the page as a present for her brother. The picture would make him laugh. Since it seemed to belong to a set, she decided to take the others as well. She could figure out what they were about later and maybe read them, if it was an interesting topic.

She left the shop without a new curse but in a far better mood none the less.

At the _White Wyvern_, she stopped for a short lunch break. It was a small pup, right over a tattoo parlour. The owner was a magnificent artist and Cassiopeia could vividly remember her mother's face, when she had seen the tattoo the young witch had gotten shortly after her seventeenth birthday. It was very small and the only tattoo she had ever gotten but it was important to her.  
The food at the _White Wyvern_ was not as good as the one Tom served at the _Leaky Cauldron_ and the company was not nearly as nice but here nobody would disturb her - at least, that was, what she hoped. Unfortunately for her - or perhaps it was more unfortunate for him - a drunk wizard decided to take a liking in her. He went over to her table and set down right next to her. Cassiopeia, smelling the alcohol in his breath, wrinkled her nose in disgust and wondered how the wizard could be drunk already. It was noon for Salazar's sake!  
She sighed, taking a moment to calm herself, before telling him to get lost. The wizard did not move in the slightest, though. Instead, he moved even closer to her. Deciding she did not have the patience to be nice any longer, she chose to use a selection of quite nasty curses instead. It felt great and, technically, she had a perfectly good reason for doing so.  
Once she had dealt with him, the whole pup went silent for a moment, before everybody went on with their business, pointedly ignoring the witch at the dark table in the corner.

* * *

When she was wandering through Knockturn Alley again, a notice on a shop window, advertising a house-elf sale caught her attention. Hadn't Hermione said something about Kreacher deserving retirement?  
Considering Kreacher's age, buying a new house-elf to help him might be a good idea. It would also mean there was still an elf around, who knew the Black house and all of its dangers whenever Kreacher died and she wouldn't have to try and keep the house clean on her own.  
The room was very dark and Cassiopeia could only see the outlines of the cages the young house-elves were kept in, waiting for someone to buy them.  
This place was miserable and the witch hated every minute would she had to spent there. It was not right to keep the house-elves in cages. They wouldn't try to leave anyway, so why force them to stay in such a tiny place? They would be much happier if they were allowed to walk around and do something. Still, shops like this were the only way to acquire a new house-elf, so, like it or not, she had to deal with it for now.

"What do you need?" Anybody else might have jumped at the wheezing voice, that suddenly came from the right side but the witch had already noticed the old wizard.

"I already have a house-elf but he is getting old and I need replacement," Cassiopeia said, pulling off her hood. In situations like this, being a Black helped. No shop owner in Knockturn Alley would ever dare to trifle with a Black. It would be pricy, but she could be sure to be shown only the best and money was really not a problem.

The shop owner's eyes grew visibly. "The young Ms Black. Kreacher is still alive, then? I remember selling his mother to your grandfather a long time ago. Would you want something like her, again?"

"I want someone hard working, loyal, able to speak up to wizards, if they dare to mess up my house and quiet on his feet. Preferably male, females tend to wail too much." The last requirement was added as an afterthought, when Cassiopeia remembered Winky. She did not think she could stand listening to those shrill noises on a regular base without going mad.

The old wizard led her to one of the cages. "Those are some of the best I have. In the corner over there would be Mipsy. He is a very fast and thorough cleaner. Or, if you set more value on silent working, there would be Socks. He barely makes a sound."

Cassiopeia surveyed the cages, looking in the faces of the young house-elves, who were staring at her with their big eyes. The witch had to swallow. Seeing the small beings look up at her, hoping to be picked, made the decision difficult. Caring for the home of a rich magical family was the goal of every house-elf and she had the power to make this dream come true for one of them, while - for now - crushing the hopes of the others.

A soft whimper in the last cage, right in the corner. A small house-elf was sitting inside the cage, thin arms wrapped around his knees and his whole body was shaking. Cassiopeia could not see his face but she was sure he was crying. He seemed to be very young, even compared to the others.

"What about this one?" she asked, pointing at the elf. "What can you tell me about him?"

"I just got him. The owner of his mother didn't want him; said he was pesky," the shop owner told her. "It's sad. He's technically still far too young to be here but what was I supposed to do? Leave him with the former owner, who might have done Merlin knows what?"

"Pesky, hmm?" Cassiopeia mumbled and the young house-elf looked at her, the fear in his green eyes warring with hope. In this moment, the decision was made. "I'll take him."

Nodding, the old wizard smiled and disappeared into another room, returning with a contract and a bill a few minutes later. After she had signed the papers, the little house-elf officially belonged to her. At least one of the poor creatures in here would have a happy home.

Reaching into the cage, she carefully pulled the elf out and picked him up. "Well then, Pesky, let's show you your new home."

"Pesky be good house-elf. Pesky be walking. Mistress not carry Pesky," the house-elf protested at the treatment but Cassiopeia ignored him, absentmindedly noting that she would have to make sure Pesky learned the correct use of grammar. Most wizards did not care about the language skills of their elves but the witch would not accept grammar mistakes. Kreacher had learned - more or less - and so would Pesky.  
The witch hoped Bill had not returned to Grimmauld Place yet, so she would not have to face him. Unfortunately, she could not stay out the whole day with a young house-elf attached to her hip. She did not want to sent him back alone, even though, since he belonged to her, Pesky would have been able to find the Black home on his own. It would be easier if she was there to introduce him to Kreacher.

The two of them left the shop and Cassiopeia apparated them directly onto the doorstep of Number 12, Grimmauld place.  
As soon as they had entered, Cassiopeia quietly called for Kreacher and the old elf arrived with a _plop_, straightening the kitchen towel he wore. The witch could see he was proud at being called immediately after her arrival.

"Mistress be calling Kreacher?" he asked, studying the small house-elf in the witch's arms with barely hidden curiosity.

Handing Kreacher the bag with the books she had bought, as well as the tea, Cassiopeia explained, "This is Pesky. He will be helping you with keeping up the house. As you can see, he is still very young, so I expect you to help him learn everything a house-elf of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black has to know. Am I understood, Kreacher?"

Kreacher nodded enthusiastically, while snipping his fingers, making the bags disappear. "Young mistress is doing her family proud. The noble house needs a good house-elf, once Kreacher is not here to help anymore. Kreacher will show Pesky how to be a good house-elf. Will Pesky be sleeping in Kreacher's den? Kreacher can make some space for the new house-elf."

Before the witch got the chance to answer Kreacher's question, there were steps on the stairs and Ron, Ginny and Hermione appeared.

"Hey, Peia! You're back, already? Did you pick out all of the books? What are we going to learn this year in DADA?...Where's Bill?" Ginny asked, looking around for her older brother.

Cassiopeia shrugged, setting Pesky down on the floor, so Kreacher could show him around.. Slowly The young house-elf padded over to the elder, looking awestruck. Apparently, the old elf had made quite a big impression on him. His owner fondly watched Pesky's still wobbly steps, thinking that she made the right choice buying him. Here, at her family home, he would at least have the chance to grow up as a happy house-elf and would not have to spent all of his youth in a cage.

Hermione Granger, though, disagreed with that notion. "Is that a house-elf?!"

"Oh my, look how cute he is!" Ginny exclaimed, looking like she wanted to pick up Pesky and cuddle him. Cassiopeia could only agree with her. Right now, the young house-elf was just too adorable for his own good. Perhaps he could even charm Bastet out of her distaste for house-elves - it would be good for her.

"Cute?! Why is there another house-elf here?" Hermione demanded to know.

"Because I bought him," Cassiopeia stated the obvious. Despite the discussion they had had about Kreacher in the morning, she was a bit puzzled by the young witch's attitude.

"Because you bought him?! You cannot just buy a living being! Is he at least paid? Does he get time off?" the Gryffindor witch screeched, waking up Walburga Black in the process.

_"__Mudbloods in my house! Out! All of you. You have no right to -"_

Pesky, who had first stared at Hermione with growing horror at her suggestions, was now torn between looking at her and the portrait, his small head jerking from left to right, while tears were welling up in his eyes.

"Would you mind not traumatizing the new house-elf? Both of you!" Cassiopeia had to raise her voice to drown out the other witches. She went over to Pesky and stroked over his head, trying to calm him down, while Kreacher was glowering at Hermione muttering something about _mudbloods_ and _always interfering in other people's business. _

_"__House-elf?"_ Walburga Black asked, confusion written all over her face. She was trying to peer around the frame of her portrait, to get a better look at her daughter's newest acquisition.

"Yes, Mother. I bought a new house-elf and I would like him to be able to work without any threats, comments or anything else," the witch growled, her mood having taken a turn south again.

"What is all of this noise about?" Molly had arrived in the entrance hall, followed by Sirius and Remus. The three of them were curiously staring at the scene in front of them.

"I bought a new house-elf, since Ms Granger was so kind to point out Kreacher was getting old," Cassiopeia told them, pointing at the young house-elf. "Go on, Kreacher, show Pesky around and find him a place to sleep. You have my permission to take anything you need for that. Blanket, towel, whatever you think works. Make it comfortable, I want Pesky to feel safe and welcome here."

The old house-elf nodded and dragged the younger into the dining room, far away from any human and their crazy suggestions.

"Where is Bill?" Molly asked, when she noticed her oldest son was nowhere to be seen, unknowingly repeating Ginny's earlier question.

"I have absolutely no idea and I don't care either." The last part was a lie, since she did care about it, even though she tried to tell herself not to. She could not help but wonder if he had stayed with his colleagues and was perhaps sitting at Gringotts, explaining forms to a witch, that surely did not need the explanations and making plans for dinner and whatnot. Scolding herself for her line of thoughts, she forced herself back on track. There was not a chance that she would show Bill's family how much he had truly hurt her. "Bill can do whatever he wants to do. It's not my business."

Six shocked faces stared back at her - no, correction, five shocked faces. Sirius looked more angry than shocked, his eyes narrowed and the grip on his wand tight. Molly opened her mouth again and Cassiopeia, not being in the mood to explain anything - she would leave that honor to Bill - excused herself. "I still have things to do, so if you'd excuse me."

She left the house again, not sure what she actually wanted to do. Buying a house-elf and coming back to Grimmauld Place so early had not been the plan but apparating back to Knockturn Alley felt stupid. She could go back to her flat but what would she do there? Sit around and stare at blank walls? That did not seem to be a very helpful solution.

Taking off her cloak so she would not stick out too much should a Muggle see her, she wandered into the small park and sat down on a bench. The wind made the leaves of the surrounding trees rustle and Cassiopeia focused on the sound to calm down again. Being outside and having the wind blow in her face reminded her of being on a broom and playing Quidditch and some of her best memories were connected to that feeling. A bird was singing in a tree behind her.  
Closing her eyes, she leaned back to enjoy the sun on her face but, somehow, it only made her sad. The gentle caresses of the sunrays reminded her of Bill stroking her cheek earlier that day. Growling, the witch berated herself for the feeling. It was pointless, annoying and it hurt. There was no use in dwelling on it but the witch couldn't help but do so. Whatever she tried to focus on, her thoughts turned back to the redheaded Curse Breaker.  
How had she even gotten herself into this situation? Why had she ever agreed to that stupid farce?!  
A couple of weeks ago, before Kingsley had asked her to keep an eye on the Third Task, she would not have thought she would meet Bill ever again. Or, maybe at Charlie's wedding - if the Dragon Tamer would ever tear his eyes away from the dragons long enough to find himself someone human to love. Now, Bill Weasley had not only found a way back into her life but had managed to become an integral part she could not get rid of easily.

He could make her smile, even if she did not feel like it at all. He told her fantastic stories, about places she wished she could visit one day and wordlessly accepted, that she was not permitted to tell him anything. He defended her, if anybody hurt her in whatever way, something nobody had thought necessary in a long time. Everybody always relied on her to protect them and no one ever remembered, that she was just human as well. But, worst of all, Bill had made her feel. Made her feel happy, just being around. Made her feel important, not for her blood or her skills but for just being herself. And now, he had taken it all away.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose, as she felt another presence in the park. Her wand slid into her hand on instinct.  
Opening her eyes, she saw a big, black dog sitting in front of her, giving a low whine when he noticed her attention.

"Snuffles? What in Salazar's name are you doing out here?" she asked her brother but pulled him closer, until his head was resting on her lap. The grim wagged his tail when she started to scratch him behind the ears and started licking her hand, once he could reach it.

"How did you know I was here, anyway? I could have apparated to Merlin knows where."

The Animagus gave her a look, that she knew all too well from his human face. Regulus had used it on her, as well. It seemed to be genetically passed in the family. _Don't try to lie to your big brother, he always knows best._

"You're impossible, you know?" Cassiopeia sighed, dropping of the bench and down to the dry grass, so she could hug her brother. Burrowing her head in the soft fur, she asked, "What do I do now? This is not what was supposed to happen."

She felt the change running through the body before her, until it was no longer a dog but a man she was hugging. "What happened, Peia? Tell me."

The witch had so many thoughts running through her head, she forgot to reprimand him for changing in the middle of a Muggle neighborhood, where anybody could have seen it. "We met some of his colleagues at Diagon Alley, after we left the bookstore. One of them was that French Triwizard Tournament Champion, Fleur Delacour. She started to flirt with him, even though it was obvious to everybody else Bill was with me."

Angry tears began to roll down the witch's cheeks and fell onto Sirius' shoulder, forming wet patches. "She asked him to explain some forms to her again and 'elp 'er to eemprove 'er Eeenglish during dinner and he actually agreed. I mean, his other colleagues were as flabbergasted as I was and one even offered to do it in his stead but he insisted on doing it himself."

Sirius steadily rubbed circles over her back. "What did you do then?"

His sister gave an inelegant snort. "I left. He told his colleagues and I quote _'We can still spent time together after I helped Fleur. She's always up late anyway'_. I am a Black and not some object that can be taken of a shelf and admired whenever he fancies to do so! I agreed to play along with his charade, so the least he can do is show some respect!"

The Animagus studied his sister for a moment. "What is this really about, Peia? The fact that he flirted with someone else while people were thinking you are his girlfriend and thus making you look bad or the fact, that he flirted with someone else at all?" Sirius carefully disentangled himself from the hug, looking Cassiopeia in the face. "You don't have to tell me but you should think about it. Figuring that out might help you to decide what to do next."

Cassiopeia nodded. Somehow, she got the feeling Sirius had a lot of experience listening to people trying to figure out their feelings and helping them.

"James used to have emotional breakdowns every time Lily went to Hogsmeade with another boy," Sirius explained, guessing her line of thoughts. "Believe me I have more than enough experience with this. So, take my advice and do some thinking as soon as you got over the wish to use every curse you know on Bill."

Nodding again, the witch gave her brother a brief hug to thank him.

"Good. Can we go inside again, now? It is horribly hot outside and I am sweating."

The witch laughed at her brother's grumpy face. "You can go inside all you like. I will stay away from the house until Bill came back and explained to his mother why I was so angry."

"You truly are an evil little snake. Molly will berate him until his ears ring," Sirius said with a chuckle. "It is absolutely within your right to do that, though. But, what will you do in the meantime? You have no idea when he will come back."

There was a rustling noise, as a newspaper page flew past them. Cassiopeia watched it dance in the wind for a while, before she got an idea. "How would you like seeing you godson again?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Harry? It's far too dangerous for me to show up there. My escape has been in the Muggle news, as people frequently remind me. Someone might recognize me or, even worse, see Harry talking to me."

Shaking her head, Cassiopeia explained what she had thought about more precisely. "I was not talking about a visit, I want to pick him up and bring him home. Dumbledore asked me to give Mad-Eye the address, so someone could pick him up but why shouldn't I do so myself? You could come with me in your animagus form. No Muggle would suspect a dog to be wanted for the murder of thirteen people and I could get us out of there anytime without any problems."

The Animagus pretended to think about it but his sister could see the decision was already made.

"What are we waiting for?" Sirius asked, before turning back into the shaggy dog. Cassiopeia, quickly checking if they were truly alone, knelt next to him, slinging both arms around him and apparated them to Little Whinging.

* * *

Sorry for cutting the chapter here but it got way too long - after I remembered Harry still needed to be picked up.

If you wonder why I decided to bring in a new house-elf... wait and see. All I'm saying is, our dear Dolores Umbrigde will not be happy about that decision.


	16. Visiting Little Whinging

Thank you for so many lovely reviews!

* * *

Coincidentally, Cassiopeia had been in Little Whinging before, so she could land herself and her brother in a sideway alley, making sure no Muggle would notice their strange arrival out of thin air. She could have easily obliviated anybody, who saw them but that was something she could do without. It just took too much time and she didn't particularly fancy the high pitched screams some of the older ladies gave. Sirius probably appreciated it as well, since a dog's hearing was a lot more sensitive.

Locking down at the grim next to her, Cassiopeia said, "Alright, Snuffles. You've been here before and I don't remember where exactly Privet Drive is. I was here for about five minutes, until we noticed our target subject was already gone. That was an annoying case, believe me. We had to chase him all the way up to Perth, because a newbie _Witch Watcher_ somehow managed to give us away. Anyway, be a good dog, use your nose and find me your godson."

Sirius gave a happy bark and, wagging his tail, the grim started to trot down the alley. Cassiopeia followed him as he led her through a neighborhood full of houses, that looked all the same and had neatly kept front yards. The hedges were trimmed to perfection and, even though it had not rained in weeks, the lawn was an emerald green and the roses were blooming in abundance.

There were only a few Muggles outside. Most seemed to have stayed in their houses, due to the heat.

"That's quite a big dog you have there," a blond woman told her, pulling a small child behind her back. "Shouldn't you be keeping him on a leash?"

Cassiopeia looked down at Sirius, wondering what he would do, should she actually try to do so. Her brother gave her a look, slightly baring his teeth. It clearly told her she better didn't even think about it.

"Spoilsport," she whispered at him, before answering the Muggle. "Don't worry about Snuffles. He is all bark and no bite. At least if you don't annoy him."

The woman did not seem to believe her, as she pulled the child across the street but Cassiopeia did not care anyway. She just kept following the grim through the streets.

A street sign told the witch they had found Privet Drive and she kept her eyes open for Number Four, ignoring the Muggle woman with a bag of cat food on the street.

"Ah, here it is. Now, Snuffles, be a good dog and behave, while Muggles outside can watch us. You can do anything you want once we are inside," the witch told her brother, before stealthily surveying their surroundings. Dumbledore had mentioned something about a guard but the witch could not see anybody. Where they disillusioned? But there was nothing, that indicated that kind of charm. While it did hide one, when keeping completely still, you could see blurred outlines when the person was in motion, unless the caster was a true master. Mad-Eye was, apart from her - and probably Dumbledore - the only person she knew to cast it perfectly and the former Auror would have made his presence known by now - and the Headmaster surely had other things to do.

Shaking her head, the witch eyed the pristinely kept garden and the fence, where a fresh coat of paint still shone. Sirius sniffed at the white paint and sneezed, apparently not liking the smell. Laughing, Cassiopeia wondered who would paint a fence, while the sun was burning down like that. Any normal person would get a heatstroke.

A white cat passed them, unafraid of the grim. Sirius gave it an odd look, before ignoring the animal. Curious, the witch watched as the cat continued to walk down the street, right up to an elderly lady, whom she had not paid any attention to before. The woman picked up the cat, while looking into the direction of the witch. Then, animal and owner left.

The nameplate of Number Four, Privet Drive read _Dursley_. _Must be Harry's family_, the witch assumed. "Well, let's see if someone's at home."

Judging by the voices she could hear through the door, there was and, indeed, it took only a minute for the door to be opened by a man, that was at least one head taller and four times as broad as the witch.

"What do you want?" he barked, eying the woman and the dog in front of him. "We don't want to buy anything!"

_Such wonderful manners,_ Cassiopeia thought and decided to play a little with the unsuspecting Muggle.

"I was just looking for the owner of this dog here. I found him in a park and this is the house he led me to. It's not your dog?" she asked, looking at him with an innocent face, trying to seem as child-like as possible.  
The man's behavior while talking to a young stranger, who only wanted to help, would give her lot of insight into his character - and it would be amusing, which, of course, did not factor into the decision at all...

"We don't own a dog and if we did, it would certainly not be looking as shabby as this one," Mr. Dursley told her, giving the dog a disgusted look.

Sirius growled at the man and Cassiopeia petted his head, "Well, it is obvious he doesn't like you, so you cannot be his owner. What about your nephew, then? Does he know, where a grim named Snuffles lives?"

Mr. Dursley gave her a confused look. "What's a grim?... How do you know about my nephew?"

The witch smirked and let her wand slide out of his hiding place for a second. The polished wood gleamed in the sunlight."You are Harry Potter's uncle, correct?"

The man's eyes widened, as he took in the wooden stick in her hand. "You will leave immediately! We want nothing to do with your lot! We took the boy in and that's more than enough!"

One of the witch's eyebrows threatened to rise. _My lot? The boy? What in Merlin's name...? This was the family Harry Potter lives with?! _

"I want nothing to do with you Muggles either. Your mere presence in the vicinity of a pureblood like me is an insult. What I do want, though, is your nephew, so, where is Harry?" Cassiopeia told the man, calmly looking him in the eye, without letting a muscle so much as twitch in her face. With the index finger of her left hand, she played with the necklace holding her father's signet ring, making sure the Muggle could see the dark stone with the family crest. She could see him swallow heavily as he took in her blank face and the ring.  
The witch inwardly laughed. Sometimes, it was just too easy to intimidate people. The medieval image of magical people most Muggles had, played directly into her hands.  
Since she had been raised in a pureblood household, playing the pureblood supremacist was no hardship for her. There were enough relatives to take as a role model.

"Vernon? Vernon, who is it?" a woman called from the inside of the house.

"Nobody, Petunia darling. You don't need to worry, they were just leaving," the Muggle told her, trying to shut the door but the witch wouldn't have it.

"I don't think so, Mr. Dursley. I will not leave, until I have seen Harry, so _where_ is he?"

Sirius barked and made his way past Vernon Dursley and into the house, from where a couple of seconds later came a shriek, that made Cassiopeia wish for Professor Sprout's fluffy earmuffs. She would even have taken the loathed pink ones.

"Vernon! Vernon you have to come here!"

Cassiopeia used the man's distraction and entered the house as well. She did not have the patience to have a discussion with him right now.

In the corridor, there were a lot of pictures of a quite overweight blonde boy but none of Harry, the witch noted, as she followed Vernon Dursley into the living room. The woman inside, Lily Potter's sister, as Cassiopeia assumed - even though she looked nothing like her - was pointing her finger into the direction of an opened door. "The dog! It's that mass murderer they showed on the news two years ago! Sirius Black!"

_Honestly, Sirius? Couldn't you have waited another minute? _Giving a long suffering sigh, Cassiopeia went through the door and into a room, that turned out to be the kitchen. Inside, Harry Potter was happily clinging to her brother, who had indeed transformed back to his human self. There were Muggle cleaning utensils all over the floor and the boy held a blue duster in one hand. The witch wondered what in Merlin's name somebody would want to clean in this kitchen. She could not see even one grain of dust on any surface. Even the kitchen in her flat looked more used and the only thing she ever did in there was make some tea.

"You shouldn't be here! What if someone sees you?" she heard Harry say, his voice muffled by Sirius shoulder.

"Don't worry about me. It's alright. Peia's with me and she'll keep an eye out for any Ministry employee. If there's one around, she'll handle. How are you, Harry?" Sirius asked, holding the boy at arm's length to get a better look at him. It was the first time Cassiopeia noticed the ill-fitting clothes the young wizard wore. The robes he had worn during the Triwizard Tournament had been a bit dirty and ripped at some places but that was to be expected, considering what he had had to face in the labyrinth. Still, even after a whole school year of growing, they had fitted better than what he wore right now. Looking back at the Muggles and noticing their perfectly fitting attire, she could not help but wonder.

"I'm fine. What about everybody else? Has _he_ done anything yet? There were no reports in the _Prophet_. Has he killed anybody else, yet?" The boy-who-lived seemed terribly worried about something, that should be a grown up's or, actually, the Ministry's problem.

"There would not be any news, since the Dark Lord has yet to take any action. But this is not a topic for a Muggle house. Pack your things, we are leaving as soon as possible," Cassiopeia told the boy, who shyly smiled at her.

"Hello Ms Black!"

Cassiopeia smiled back. "Good afternoon, Harry," she greeted him, "Are you having a pleasant summer?"

The young wizard looked around the room and shrugged, "I've had worse holidays."

The witch raised an eyebrow, before shooing him off. "Come on, off you go! Sirius, help him pack and hurry up. I don't want to stay any longer than strictly necessary."

The two wizards went out of the room and the witch could hear their steps on the stairs. Petunia and Vernon Dursley were still in the living room, although the latter held something in his hand, that Cassiopeia recognized as one of those Muggle telephones. Denbright had explained it to her once, when they had questioned a Muggle in his house and the witch had wondered about the strange ringing thing. It was interesting to see what Muggles invented instead of owl post and patronus messages or fire calls.

"Put that away," she told Vernon, who froze in the middle of moving. "Do you honestly think that police of yours could do anything? I have to shoo them away from magical cases regularly and I never have problems. Hit Wizards are trained to outmatch any magical criminal in a duel, so, how should Muggles be able to actually make any trouble? They are just a nuisance. I'd just disarm and obliviate them. Perhaps I'd make them think it was false alert. On the other hand, isn't it far more interesting to cause real trouble? There is a lot of things I could make them believe... Now, while we are waiting for Harry and my brother, why don't you tell me about this cat flap I have heard about?"

Seeing the Dursleys blanch, Cassiopeia gave them a wicked smile. "I am waiting."

It took Harry and Sirius about ten minutes to come back down, trunk, broom and empty owl cage in their hands. Vernon and Petunia Dursley had not managed to say more than a few stammered sentences. On the one hand, this pleased Cassiopeia's Slytherin side, since it was obvious how much they feared her and what she could do to them. On the other hand, it annoyed her, because the things she had heard made her wonder about a couple of other things. All in all, she had a lot more questions and no decent answers. Maybe Harry could shed some light into the dark later.

"Alright. You've got everything, Harry?"

The boy nodded.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, looks like we have to finish our delightful conversation. Should Mr. Potter truly have to return to your lovely house next summer, expect me to visit regularly. Perhaps we can even finish our conversation then. Harry, do you want to say goodbye to your family?"

The boy-who-lived looked at his Muggle relatives and gave them a wave.

"Good. Now that that's done...," Cassiopeia looked at the Muggles and drew her wand. She would not risk the Ministry finding out about Sirius, should they bother to check the Dursleys' memory, once they noticed Harry wasn't there any longer. Thankfully, as any employee of the _DMLE_, she had learned how to keep the trace from alarming the _Improper Use of Magic Office_. The last thing they needed now was to call attention to what was going on.  
When all memories of Sirius had successfully been vanished - while leaving those about her and the conversation they had intact, Cassiopeia and the two wizards left the room. She left the memories about her on purpose. If someone truly tried to find out what had happened, no memories would be more suspicious then one that was tampered with - at least, if the one looking was not a true master in Legilimens and the one who made the adjustments knew, what they were doing.

"Where are we going? The Burrow?" Harry asked, as the witch grabbed his arm.

"No. The Weasleys have moved to a safer place and that is where I will bring you to. Your friend Hermione is also there, as is Remus Lupin," Cassiopeia told him and Harry looked at her curiously. "They moved to a safer place? Where?"

"It's not safe to talk about it, here. You'll see in a minute," the witch answered and with a _pop_, the three left Privet Drive.

Cassiopeia was happy to leave the Muggles and their far too orderly house behind. It looked more like a show house than anything else. Even the witch's bleak flat looked more lived in than that.

Bringing Harry through the wards with her, Cassiopeia landed on the doorstep of her family home.

"Welcome to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the wonderful house your godfather and I grew up in," she told the boy-who-lived with an exaggerated bow.

Harry eyed the dirty walls and the shabby front yard.

"We are currently... redecorating," Cassiopeia told him with a shrug, "If you would be so kind not to touch anything, there are still some curses around. Oh, and talk quietly in the Entrance Hall, we don't want to wake up our dear mother."

Harry looked at the siblings with questioning eyes. "Your mother?"

"Portrait. Long story," Sirius explained with a sigh. "You'll see her sooner or later. Someone always manages to wake up the portrait."

"Especially if Tonks is in the house. How she managed to pass the Auror tests when it comes to stealth is beyond me. But her disguise is perfect. Being an Metamorphmagus has to have some uses, I guess. Anyway, if you're in the Entrance Hall when she wakes up, cover your ears. The screeching is terrible. And don't feel insulted by anything she says to you. She insults everybody, including her children," Cassiopeia added and opened the front door.

Harry curiously took in the Entrance Hall.

"It's a bit different from the Burrow and certainly from your relatives' home but you'll get used to it. Just always keep in mind that the Blacks are a dark family. We are working on it but this house will never be as friendly or as welcoming as the Burrow."

Kreacher appeared with a soft _pop_, followed by Pesky, who seemed to lack the coordination necessary for apparition and landed in a heap on the floor. Cassiopeia reached down and picked up the young house-elf, making sure he stood securely before letting go.

"Young Mistress brought new guest?" Kreacher asked, studying Harry. "Will the new guest be staying at the noble home of the family?"

Harry, in turn, was studying the two house-elves in front of him.

"Oh, Harry, these are Kreacher and Pesky," Cassiopeia introduced them. "Kreacher, Pesky, this is Harry Potter. He is family and I expect him to be treated as such, is that understood?"

Both house-elves nodded.

"Kreacher and Pesky be preparing room for Mr. Harry Potter," the elder house-elf declared, before grabbing Harry's luggage and disappearing with Pesky.

Sirius stared at the spot the two house-elves had vanished from with a slightly disgusted face. His sister gave him a stern look. "I know you don't like Kreacher but could you please try to be nice to him and to Pesky? He's trying as well, he didn't even say anything about you. Plus, his cooperation will get the house cleaned a lot faster and you never know when a house-elf will come in handy."

"I'll try but if he starts mumbling anything again, I will through him out of the room."

"Alright," Cassiopeia sighed. It was better than nothing, after all. She turned to Harry and seeing the surprised look on his face asked, "Is that the first house-elf you saw? No, wait, you saw ... what was her name... Winky, wasn't it?"

"I didn't know your family owned a house-elf," the young wizard told his godfather.

"Kreacher's been in the family for ages and there has always been a house-elf tending to this house. I guess, since Peia here bought a new one today, there will be a house-elf around for a while."

"You bought a house-elf?" Harry asked the witch, astonished.

"Kreacher is old and I don't have the time to keep the house clean and inhabitable. Besides, I could hardly leave someone like Pesky in a place like that. I mean, you saw him. Could you have walked away, knowing that he would spent the next five or six years in a cage, until he is truly old enough to work?"

"In a cage?"

"That's where they keep the house-elves, until they are sold. I don't like it but there is nothing I can do about that. Anyway, Pesky is far too young to really do any work. He can help a bit, learn all the tricks and so on but it will be a couple of years until he's fully grown. I guess you could equivalent him to a clumsy, very eager to help four-year old human."

"My sister does the strangest things when you let her run around unsupervised. Either she buys a house-elf or she gets hit with cutting curses or she finds herself a ..."

Cassiopeia put a hand over Sirius' mouth. "Don't listen to him. I may have been a Slytherin but I'm not half as bad as he will make me out to be, I promise."

"I said nothing but the truth! You did get hit by a curse," Sirius complained, after he had removed her hand.

"Occupational hazard, nothing to worry about. Though it is the reason why we couldn't pick you up any sooner. The house is under a Fidelius and I am the secret keeper, so, while I was out for almost week, nobody could bring you here. I've only been back for a day. Sorry about that."

Harry smiled at her. "You did come as soon as possible though."

"I do what I can," the witch answered, "Come on, let's find your friends. They'll be happy to see you."

According to noise level, all of the human inhabitants were currently in the kitchen of the house. Cassiopeia silently wondered, why they didn't use the living room for playing games and chatting. The old wooden chairs in the kitchen could be terribly uncomfortable after some time and the living room had a nicer atmosphere. With a nod into the general direction of the kitchen, the witch directed the newest guest into the room.

"Harry!" It was Ginny Weasley, who noticed their arrival first. Nine heads turned at her exclamation and within seconds, Harry Potter was surrounded by his friends. Seeing the smile on the teens faces pleased Cassiopeia. At least they were happy now.

"How did you get here?" she heard Ron ask, while her eyes left the students and surveyed the other people in the room. Bill had returned to Grimmauld Place and was sitting next to Remus. For a moment, she felt her chest constrict, making it hard to breath. Angrily, she forced any feelings away and continued to look around. To her surprise, she saw Mad-Eye there as well.

"I guess I will not have to find a way how to discreetly pick up Mr. Potter," the former Auror said, while his magical eye was watching the teens.

Cassiopeia shrugged. "Well, you know, I was already in the area..."

Mad-Eye snorted in disbelief. "Did anybody see you? You know that they might try to trace you."

"A Muggle or two, nothing to worry about. I had to obliviate Harry's family though, since Sirius couldn't wait and transformed right in front of them. I left the memory about me picking him up, though. They would become too suspicious, if there was no memory at all. I don't mind if the Ministry finds out about me picking Harry up but if they find out about Sirius..."

"So nobody will know Sirius was there?" the former Auror asked.

Cassiopeia nodded in reassurance.

"Good. I had worried, when Arabella sent word that she saw someone, who looked like a Black with a huge grim at Harry's house. Her kneazles said there was no danger but she wanted to be sure."

"Arabella?" Cassiopeia wondered, before remembering the white cat and the old lady. "Elderly lady, running around with a net full of cat food?"

"Sounds like her. Her full name is Arabella Figg. Perhaps you remember that?"

The witch nodded. She had heard whispers about the squib. People like her were not talked about openly in Slytherin house but sometimes you would hear rumors.

"No further complications?"

"No."

Mad-Eye stared at the witch for a moment, silently making sure everything truly was alright. She slowly blinked at him once, telling him not to worry. She wasn't a newbie, after all and she knew what she was doing.

Since he had gotten all of the information he was likely to get from the witch, the former Auror went to talk to her brother. Cassiopeia inwardly rolled her eyes. He would not stop asking until he knew every little detail of what happened. While Mad-Eye was tormenting Sirius with dozens of questions, the witch looked around the kitchen once more, trying to ignore Bill's presence. But, whatever she did, her eyes were drawn back to the Curse Breaker every time.  
When he saw the witch looking at him, Bill got up and made his way over to her.

"Can we talk?"

"I wouldn't know what we have to talk about," Cassiopeia told him, her tone as cold as she could manage. She was proud that there was not the slightest wobble in her voice.  
The witch turned around, intending to leave and buy some ice-cream, since she had been told multiple times that ice-cream helps to heal a broken heart but Bill grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Look, I talked to Lucy and she told me -"

"Oh, great, Lucy told you. Well, what did Lucy tell you, then?" Cassiopeia snapped, angry that he did not even manage to find out what he did wrong on his own.

"Well, after you left, she glared at me - actually Jack and Dave did so as well and then I asked what...," noticing that the witch's face got darker with every word he said, he backpedaled. "Ok, no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

Cassiopeia just glared at him.

The Curse Breaker sighed. "I'm making everything worse, right?"

"You could say that."

"I'm an idiot."

The witch graced that statement with a tiny smile. "That is something I can agree with."

Bill grimaced. "I guess I deserved that."

By now, every single person in the kitchen was watching them.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, not knowing about the 'relationship' or the angry arrival of the witch at Grimmauld Place earlier that day.

"Bill's an idiot," Ginny told him, as if it explained everything. The redhead halfheartedly glared at his younger sister. "Yes, we established that already."

"Well, you cannot say it often enough, considering every single thing you said up to now just served to proof that statement," the girl said, walking over to Cassiopeia and putting an arm around the older witch's shoulders.

Cassiopeia eyed the younger witch, curious about how much she knew.

Ginny leaned closer and whispered, "When he came home, he narrowly managed to avoid Mum, who was already waiting for him. Right after she found out you were angry at Bill, she positioned herself near the Entrance Hall and waited for him. She even forced us to stay in our rooms, so we wouldn't get into her way. Bill must have arrived when she was distracted by Kreacher and he managed to come upstairs and hide in the room Hermione and I are sharing. Not his most brilliant idea."

Looking at her brother and then at Hermione, she continued, "Now, instead of only Mum giving him a piece of her mind, he was completely at our mercy. When he had told us what happened, he got a nice, long lecture from us. That was before Mum figured out her eldest son was already at home and dragged him to the kitchen to berate him. It was fun to watch. She didn't even know what he had done exactly but... well, you know Mum by now."

Cassiopeia studied Molly and Hermione. She could imagine those two giving lectures to misbehaving individuals and Ginny... Ginny had a Slytherin streak.

The younger witch continued, "Actually, I believe he now understands what he's done wrong and he really is sorry. He didn't tell us everything but I think there is a story behind everything he's done the last few weeks. I heard him and Charlie talking but it hardly made sense to me and Charlie wouldn't tell me when I asked him."

"Can we forget anything I said up to now and I try again?" Bill asked sheepishly.

"I usually don't give second chances."

Bill closed his eyes, seemingly thinking about something. He fiddles with the hem of his shirt. Cassiopeia noticed how nervous he seemed.

"Give me one hour. I will explain everything and if you think it's not enough, I'll back off. I'll leave you alone but, please, give me the chance to explain it properly."

The witch bit her lip, unsure if she really wanted to hear what he had to say. What if she didn't like it? What if it made the pain even worse? What if it truly made _her_ feel like an idiot? He could tell her he was sorry she felt that way but it was only ever a fake relationship and he preferred to be with Fleur now. But, what if his behavior the last weeks had been honest? What if he really wanted to apologize for making a mistake? What if he wanted to try and have a real relationship? Did she really want risk throwing that away?

"Give him a chance and let him explain it," Ginny quietly advised from her side. Then she added more loudly, "If you don't like what he says, you can still curse him afterwards. I would say I'll help but I guess I would only be in your way."

Bill cringed slightly at that comment.

"If you do so, please leave him in one piece," Molly asked. "He may be an idiot but he's still my son."

When Cassiopeia looked at Sirius, he gave her a smile and a tiny nod but it was Mad-Eye who made her decide. "I always thought words are one of you Slytherins greatest weapons. Are you now afraid of them, tiny?"

Glaring at the Ex-Auror, who just knew how to push her buttons, she made a decision. "Alright. I'll give you one hour, Bill. One hour. Not a minute more."

Bill smiled, his relief palpable. "Good, then we better hurry up. I don't want to waste any time," he said, gesturing at the door.

The witch raised an eyebrow. "And where exactly are we going?"

"The Burrow. I need to show you something."

A bit reluctantly to leave the people, who had supported her, behind, Cassiopeia agreed and let Bill apparate her side-along to the Burrow. She had to admit she was curious about what he wanted to show her, even though she did not want to get her hopes up.

* * *

I'm glad so many of you like Pesky. Once I got the idea of a new house-elf, I just couldn't get that small and cute little thing with big eyes out of my mind.

I've created a poll, whether you would like to read about Bill trying to explain what happened in Diagon Alley to Cassiopeia or about Bill being berated by Molly and a couple of other people first. Visit my profile site and vote for your chapter!


	17. Bill's most terrible day

Here is our winning chapter. I hope you like it. To all of you, who voted for the other chapter, it will be uploaded next Sunday, promise. Thanks for the bunch of reviews!

* * *

**This chapter is from Bill's point of view**

* * *

"Peia, what ... is the problem?"  
Bill stared after the witch in bewilderment, watching her cloak billow as she disappeared in the crowd. _What in Merlin's name had just happened?  
_He looked at his colleagues, trying to figure out if they knew what was going on. Lucy was glaring at him, as if she wanted to burn holes through him. Dave shook his head exasperated and Jack just stared at him, mouth slightly opened. Only Fleur gave him an encouraging smile.

"I never thought I would say that but, Bill Weasley, you are an idiot," Dave informed him, taking a sip of his coffee.  
Bill wracked his mind, trying to figure out what he possibly could have done wrong. All he did was meet some colleagues and agree to help out an intern, who had problems with the foreign language. The wizard, who had been tasked with showing him the ropes in Egypt had done the same. That couldn't be it - but he hadn't done anything else, had he? He went through the whole conversation in his head, starting with the moment he had spotted his colleague but came up with nothing. They had talked about shopping and Cassiopeia seemed to enjoy reminiscing about Quidditch games with Lucy. He wouldn't have even stayed this long if she hadn't seemed so happy.

"What did I do wrong?" Bill asked, hoping the others might tell him.

"What you did wrong?!" Lucy stared at him, as if she didn't believe her own ears. "Are you honestly asking that?! Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Dave sighed. "I had pegged you for someone, who knew how to treat a woman but, apparently, I was wrong. That was really low of you. If you want to break up with her, at least have the courage to tell her so personally."

"Break up? Why would I want to break up with her?" Bill asked. Now he was completely confused. He had the feeling that he was missing something really, _really_ big here but could not figure out, what it was.

"Then why did you agree on a date with Fleur?!" Lucy asked.

Bill blinked, then stared at her, his brows furrowed. "I...what?"

For Godric's sake, what was that witch talking about?

"I do not understand what all ziz fuzz ees about. Why can 'e not -"

"Zip it. You've caused enough trouble for today," Lucy snapped at the other witch, before turning back to Bill. "Monday, teaching Fleur English, dinner afterwards. Does that ring a bell?"

"Yes, sure but -" The Curse Breaker began to backtrack the whole conversation. Had he missed somethi... Merlin's pants! How could that have happened? His dorm mates used to come to him to get tips on how to get their crushes to go out with them and he used to tease them, when they didn't notice a girl trying to flirt with them. Now... he hadn't noticed it himself. This was bad - no, it was worse than bad. This was a disaster.

"I see it does ring a bell. Well, let me tell you something, Bill. This is _not_ how you treat a girl. I am amazed that you got her to go out with you in the first place. I may not know much about her but she seems to be a great girl. Funny, smart, a great Quidditch player and she clearly likes you. Why she does, I have no idea and she is probably asking herself the same. I really do admire her self-control. If I had been in her position, I would have slapped you at the very least. I think... -"

Bill wasn't even listening to her. His thoughts whirled around.  
Why did this have to happen?! He had been so sure that there was some kind of attraction from her side. The one chance he had hoped for... and then he had to go and ruin it all.  
How in Merlin's name was he supposed to straighten that out? Cassiopeia was very insecure, when it came to relationships of any kind. It was something he had noticed very early about her. Coupled with her proud nature, there was nothing worse someone close to her could do than give her the feeling of being only second best to somebody else. He had to find her. But where to start looking? Was she still in Diagon Alley or had she gone somewhere else?

"- Well?... William Weasley! Have you been listening to anything I just said?!"

Bill looked up at the woman, who was pointing a finger at his nose. He saw a few people sitting around them, who were eying them with barely hidden curiosity. Great. He could feel his face heat up and cursed the fact, that he turned red so easily. It was a curse that plagued all of his family and, at the moment, it only added to the embarrassment he was already feeling with so many people staring at him, while Lucy was lecturing him.

"Sorry, Lucy. I was thinking," he apologized.

"_Really_?" the witch asked disbelievingly, "And what were you thinking about?"

"I'm trying to figure out where she could be."

Lucy gave him a very critical onceover but, before she could say anything, Jack piped up, "Good luck with that one. She could be anywhere by now. She doesn't seem like the type to wait for you running after her."

Bill groaned. Even though he had come to the same conclusion, hearing it from the other man was much worse. Any hope he might have had, that one of his colleagues had seen where Cassiopeia went ,was gone.

"What will you do, once you found her?" Lucy asked him. She did not seem to trust him very much at the moment.

"_I don't know,_" Bill grumbled, nervously pulling at his ponytail, "I never meant to agree on a date with Fleur and have absolutely no idea how I am supposed to tell Peia..."

He interrupted himself. What exactly did he want to tell her? That he, William Weasley, had somehow missed Fleur's flirting? Right, because that sounded so believable - even though it was the truth. Cassiopeia had attended Hogwarts at the same as he had and had probably heard all of the juicy rumors that had circulated about him - whether they had been true or not. He knew Slytherins were the worst of all gossips in Hogwarts and - even though Cassiopeia did not seem like the type to gossip - there was little chance to escape it, especially in a girls dormitory.  
Why had he been so oblivious to the flirting?! Why couldn't he make some other stupid mistake that could at least be explained easily?

"Bloody Merlin, how do I set things straight again? There has to be a way..."

"I think, the only thing, that can salvage your relationship now, is the truth," Dave told him, "No matter how much you may dislike the romantic, feeling stuff, you'll have to tell her. It sure is the only thing, that calms my wife down."

Lucy nodded, "Women like to hear about that and we know how hard it is for guys to talk about such things. If you try that, she'll know you are serious."

Bill just sighed, again. Cassiopeia was not very good with feelings and he was not sure if he was very good at explaining them. How was this advice supposed to help him?

* * *

Bill tiptoed through the Entrance Hall of Grimmauld Place. He was quite sure Cassiopeia was not there yet but it was the only place he could think of where she would show up, sooner or later. He had searched all of Diagon Alley but the witch was nowhere to be found and he had no idea where else to look.  
Apart from explaining the misunderstanding, his top priority right now was to avoid his mother at all costs. One look at him and she would know he had done something. If he could manage to set everything straight before she noticed, it would be better for everybody - but especially his ears.  
But, for that, he first needed to figure out how to explain everything properly. Simply saying 'sorry, it was a misunderstanding, I only wanted to help Fleur, not go on a date' was probably not the best idea and he still hadn't figured out what to do with Dave's advice.

He went up to the first floor, not seeing or hearing anybody. The latter worried him, there was always noise when the twins were around.

"...how long we have to stay in here."

"He'd better come back soon. Mum will get more angry with any passing minute."

"I wonder what he did. Malfoy never managed to sound even nearly as cold as she did."

Bill stopped in front of the girls' room. That sounded as if they were talking about him and Cassiopeia. Was she here already? Had she actually returned earlier than she had said?  
He knocked on the door and opened without waiting for the permission. He had to know where Cassiopeia was.

The two girls inside looked up from the bed they were sitting on.

"Ginny, where is -"

"What did you do?" the redheaded witch asked, quickly getting up and standing in front of her brother, she underlined every word of her next sentence with a jab to his chest, "What - in -Merlin's - name - did - you - idiot - do?"

Bill held up both hands in surrender. There had been enough people berating him for the day - at least in his humble opinion - and he didn't want to make things worse for himself. Ginny sure had a temper and, if you gave her reason to be really angry, she could get scary.

"It's complicated," he mumbled, opting for an answer, that didn't tell them much but gave him the possibility to add more, should it be necessary. Stepping away from his sister and sitting down on the unoccupied bed, idly wondering when he had started to pay so much attention to what he said and how he said it.

"Complicated enough, that the brightest witch of her age and your sister, who has managed to outsmart Fred and George more than once, cannot follow your explanation?" Ginny shot back.

"No, probably not." Bill sighed, letting himself fall back onto the bed, putting an arm over his eyes, "I'm not sure myself what happened. I mean, I know what happened but I don't get, why I didn't see it. It would have probably been easy for you to spot. I mean, you're girls, you see such things right away. Godric, how am I going to make this right again?"

There was no answer from the girls and Bill only had the company of his own thoughts, which were not very pleasant at the moment. He could not help but think back to the moments before Peia had stormed away so angrily. She had been happy, talking to Lucy about Quidditch - he really didn't know who was worse, when it came to Quidditch, Charlie or Peia. It was probably Ron, anyway. None of the other two would be crazy enough to decorate their room entirely in orange. He may be a guy but even Bill could see the color was atrocious it that room.  
The Curse Breaker had only seen the two witches through the corners of his eyes, so he had not been able to watch all of Cassiopeia's facial expressions. Contrary to common belief, Slytherin faces were very expressive - if one knew what to look for. What he had noticed though, was the small crease forming on Peia's forehead. It had stuck out to him, because it had been the first time he had seen it. But, before he had had the time to think about it, she had already grabbed her things, telling him she would not be back until very late.

Wait... Peia's been at Grimmauld Place before he had arrived, right? Perhaps she had come back in the hopes of finding him. Perhaps there was a chance she was not as angry, as he had thought.

"Peia was here, earlier, wasn't she?"

"Yes. To drop of Pesky. Right afterwards she disappeared again and nobody's seen her or Sirius since then," Hermione informed him.

Great, just great. Why couldn't he have just a tiny little bit of luck today. Was that really asked for too much?  
He didn't even bother to think about how he must look to his little brother's best friend, it would only blow down what was left of his ego. He knew Hermione had been told how he had managed to have twelve O.W.L.s and was Prefect and later even Head Boy. Ginny had probably added in a few facts she knew about his job as a Curse Breaker. Both Hermione and Harry had seemed quite fascinated with him and Charlie during the last summer. At least they still had Charlie to admire.

"Who's Pesky?" Bill asked after a while, when the strange name finally registered.

He could hear Ginny's beaming smile in her voice. "Pesky is a new house-elf. Hermione here isn't very happy about him being here but I think he's _sooo_ cute!"

Bill sat up. "A house-elf?! I've heard about girls going shopping when they're angry about something but buying a house-elf? Oh, Peia, you never do things the way normal people do them, do you? People buy shoes, clothes, maybe even jewelry but not house-elves! That's not supposed to be a spontaneous decision!"

"You still haven't told us what happened," Ginny said, looking at him expectantly.

"Well, what do you want to hear? We met some of my colleagues, one of them started flirting with me, I didn't stop her and then Peia stormed off. Happy?"

The two witches looked at each other and Bill shuddered. He had seen that look on his mother's face often enough. It never bode well.

"How about the whole truth, Bill?" Hermione said.

Why did women always know if he didn't tell them everything? Did they have some kind of sixth sense for that? It was certainly not fair to all of the men. How were they ever supposed to keep a secret?

"Alright, I may have, kind of, agreed on a date with the intern without realizing it?"

"Merlin, Bill!"

"Bill, honestly?"

The two witches groaned, looking at him exasperatedly.

"Please, I've had to listen to a lecture already. Can we skip that part and go straight to the part where you help me to figure out how I can apologize? I really don't -"

Ginny's glare silenced him. "No! I don't care how often you've been berated. You will listen to your little sister for once. I don't know what all of this fake dating was about -"

Hermione drew in a sharp breath. "Fake?"

"Mum mistook Peia for Bill's girlfriend and they just continued with the charade. They got better with the acting but, if you'd have been around them a little longer, you would have seen it, too. I think, the fact that Peia's job kept her away from here most of the time is the only reason Mum hasn't figured it out, yet." Ginny quickly explained. It was not quite the truth in Bill's opinion but he didn't voice his thoughts. He kind of liked to think, that he had treated Peia exactly like he would have, had she been his real girlfriend.

"Anyway, I know there is something behind it, even if Charlie wouldn't tell me what it was," Ginny continued.

Bill was relieved to hear his brother had not told her anything. It was embarrassing enough that he knew everything.

"Merlin, Bill. All I hear about you from people, that have been at school with you is, _He had his way with girls, they always flocked around him_ or _Thanks to Bill I managed to convince my wife to go out on a date with me._ How could you not realize you've agreed on a date?!"

The door opened.

"Hermione, Ginny, I've heard loud voices. Is everything..."

Molly Weasley trailed off, as she noticed her oldest son in the room. "Bill, dear, I didn't even hear you come home..."

Bill narrowed his eyes, recoiling a bit from his mother in the doorway. He had a feeling he should better get away from her - as soon as possible.  
Molly marched over to the bed he was sitting on, grabbed him by the ear and started to drag him down the stairs.

"Ow! Mum! That hurts! Let go!" the Curse Breaker complained. His mother did not let go, though, until they had reached the kitchen. Remus and his father were in there as well, while Sirius was suspiciously absent. He had not returned yet so Cassiopeia wasn't here either, of that Bill was sure.

He was glad Sirius wasn't here. What his mother was probably about to do was embarrassing but having Peia's brother around would have probably been terrifying. Even though they had spent only a couple of weeks together - and Peia had been Godric knows where during most of that time - Bill could how much the witch loved her brother and how much he loved her in return. He had enough sibling himself to understand how their relationship worked. Well, he guessed the relationship between Peia and Sirius to be a bit different than the one he had with his own siblings, after all, none of those six had ever spent any time in Askaban.

The point was, Sirius loved his sister and, even though Bill had heard stories about the Animagus being a prankster and loving a good joke more than anything else, he was quite afraid of him. Sirius probably knew almost as many dark and nasty spells as his sister and he had no reason not to use them. Judging by the fact, that even he, as a Curse Breaker- could not remove a lot of curses in the house - including the one on the heads on the stairs, that Ginny was so afraid of - it was quite clear he would be outmatched an at the moment he was not sure who would try to help him.

Behind Molly and Bill, Ginny and Hermione entered the room. Both of them were apparently very curios what his mother would be telling Bill and judging by the look of Ginny's face, she was quite looking forward to hearing her brother get scolded by their mother. Listening to their Mum's lectures was either embarrassing or entertaining, depending on who was getting lectured and where they were.

"William Arthur Weasley!"

Bill flinched. That tone did not forebode well. She was really angry this time. "Mum! I -"

"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME DID YOU DO?!"

"I -"

The Weasley matriarch raised her hand, stopping any explanation her son might have thought of.

"THAT POOR GIRL WAS EXTREMELY ANGRY WITH YOU. AND DON'T THINK I DID NOT NOTICE HOW MUCH SHE WAS HURT. I RAISED SEVEN CHILDREN, I KNOW WHEN SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO HIDE SOMETHING FROM ME! I THOUGHT, I HAD RAISED MY SONS AS GENTLEMEN. I THOUGHT, I HAD TAUGHT YOU HOW TO BEHAVE BUT, APPARENTLY, I - HAVE - BEEN - WRONG!"

She took a deep breath before continuing, her voice getting shriller with every sentence. "WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAKE HER THIS ANGRY? WAS ALL OF THIS JUST A GAME FOR YOU AND YOU GOT TIRED OF IT? DID YOU JUST USE THAT POOR GIRL? DID YOU -"

"No! Mum! I -"

"HOW WOULD YOU FEEL, IF SOMEONE BROKE YOUR HEART? BECAUSE THAT IS, WHAT SHE LOOKED LIKE, HEARTBROKEN! HOW COULD YOU? You made such a nice couple and you've always been such a good boy before. Twelve O.W.L.S, prefect, Head Boy. What went wrong?" Molly Weasley's voice broke and Bill stared at his mother, who seemed to be close to tears. He had listened to her berating him or one of his sibling more than once but she had never cried and Bill felt terrible.

"Where did my sweet little boy go? Where did the boy go, that brought his mother flowers as an apology? Where is the little boy, that snuck his brother some cake, when he fell off the apple tree? Where..."

"Molly, please," her husband tried to calm her. "Why don't you let Bill explain himself first?"

"Mum, I didn't hurt her on purpose. And, just for your information, I know what a broken heart feels like. It's something I could have done without. All I currently want is to find Peia and explain everything! Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her."

"Mum? Is everything alright?" Ron asked hesitantly from the door. "I know you said we shouldn't leave our rooms but..."

"Ronniekins here was a bit worried -"

"- when he heard your lovely voice -"

"- all the way upstairs -"

"- so we decided -"

"- to come and see -"

"- what's going on," Fred and George said, poking their heads through the door on either side of Ron.

The Weasley Matriarch waved them inside the room. She seemed to have calmed herself enough to continue with her lecture.

"It's good you came down here. Now I will not have to repeat myself," Molly said, eying each of her sons. "You will all listen very closely to me now. Should I ever hear, that any of you dated a girl just to use her for... for... I cannot even think about this in connection to any of my sons... but, remember my words. It will not be that girl, or her friends, siblings or parents you will have to worry about. _I_ will be your worst nightmare. I do not want to ever hear about any of my sons hopping from one bed to another! Am I understood?"

All of her sons nodded frantically, especially the twins and Ron, who were trying to get out of the focus of their mother's attention as soon as possible.

"I never thought the day would come when I have to say this but, do _not_ take Bill as an example, when it comes to relationships!"

The three younger boys looked at their mother with wide eyes, before simultaneously turning their heads to face their brother.

"What did you do?" Ron asked curiously.

"It's not as bad as you think it is, Mum," Ginny said, before the Curse Breaker could say anything. Molly looked at her daughter questioningly. "He kind of told us what happened. I mean, we certainly had to poke and prod a lot but I think Hermione and I got the gist of everything."

As happy as Bill was, that his sister chose to stick up for him, even against their mother, he was now praying to anybody who might listen, that she did not tell their mother what exactly had happened.

"And what did happen then?"

Ginny shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mum, but you'll have to ask Bill or Peia. It's not my place to tell you. Though, I think right now Bill should focus on how to explain everything to Peia. He certainly needs to be convincing, otherwise she'll not listen to him."

"Just tell her you love her and everything will be alright," Ron said.

"Ronald! This is not how you earn a girl's forgiveness! First messing up and then saying I love you is..is, argh! I cannot even think up a proper comparison you would understand!" Hermione scolded him.

"It's like playing foul in Quidditch and then demanding you get a penalty shot for your own team," George tried to explain.

"Well, that comparison is a bit flawed -"

"At least he now understands the gist of it," Ginny whispered to Hermione, before she could finish the sentence. Bill grinned inwardly. Ron had exactly as much understanding of romantic feelings as Cassiopeia did - only that he hadn't been raised in a family, where those kind of feelings were frowned upon.

"- but I guess it's the best we can come up with right now," Hermione finished with a sigh.

"But the idea of telling her, that he loves her isn't that bad, is it?" Fred wondered, "I mean, not right away but, kind of as a romantic finish to his explanation?"

His voice turned questioning at the end, when he noticed Ginny's raised eyebrow.

"It was just a thought?"

"And not a bad one," Ginny mumbled, "Who would have thought one of you two would actually have some useful ideas for this?"

"We like her -"

"- and we would like -"

"- to keep her around. We think -"

"- she would actually let us -"

"- prank people, because -"

"- it would teach them -"

"- to be on their guard all -"

"- of the time. It would be great to -"

"- have a Professor supporting us."

"You two will concentrate on your N.E.W.T.s this year! There will be no time for pranks, sanctioned by a Professor or not!"

"Oh, come on, Mum..."

As happy as Bill was, that his Mum's attention had finally diverted from him, he did not want to listen to her argue with the twins again. He still had no plan what to do, once he found Cassiopeia, or even where to find her, now that she had left Grimmauld Place alreadySitting down between Remus and his father, he pinched the bridge of his nose. It was difficult to think with all of the noise around him. He had always preferred quiet places to work in, like the library. Remus bowed towards the Curse Breaker, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I have no idea where Cassiopeia is right now. Sirius went after her a while ago and neither has returned, yet. My guess is, that he's keeping her company somewhere. Even Padfoot knows how dangerous it is for him to be outside and he would have returned if he didn't find her," he said, even though he did not sound completely convinced. "What I am sure of is, that Sirius will not let her go anywhere without telling him about it. Either she will return here, with Sirius, or he will know where she is. Whatever happens, you will find out where she is."

Bill looked at the werewolf doubtfully, "What if he doesn't want to tell me where she is?"

"He will tell you. He knows that Cassiopeia will never be happy if she doesn't know what really happened, if she doesn't know your point of view. There will always be too many what ifs. He will tell you, because it's the best for his sister."

Arthur nodded and motioned for his son to lean closer, "Listen, son, I will not ask you to tell me, what exactly happened. I can see how much you love her. Not because of all those cheesy things you do for the sake of your mother but because of the things you do, when you think no one is looking. The soft look in your eyes when she is spacing out, thinking about a grand scheme or whatever. The proud look, when she manages to find a quick solution or realizes a problem way ahead of others. Or the fact, that you actually tolerate, maybe even like her cat, even though you are no cat person. You know, I heard you and Charlie talk in your room late at night one day. At first, I was so disappointed in you. I never would have thought one of my sons would revert to such things and lie to us."

Bill blanched, as he realized what day his father was talking about. "Dad, I can -"

"Let me finish, Bill. I was disappointed and I stood in front of your door for a few minutes, listening to the rest of the conversation. I know I should not have done so, you and Charlie are both old enough to make your own decisions and you both deserve your privacy but I am glad I did. If I hadn't, I would never have confronted Charlie about what I heard. I know he didn't tell Ginny anything but he told me."

"He what?!" Bill tried to keep his voice down but he was shocked. This was worse than anything his father could have heard listening through the door. What Charlie knew...He had never expected him of all people to give away his secret. He had worked so hard to keep this from everybody.

"Don't be angry with your brother, he is really trying to help you the best he can. Do you know what he told me? He said, this plan is the closest I could ever come up with to make Bill happy and he deserves happiness after such a long time of pining. I know that plan has holes, Peia always used to complain about them all the time, only, now I cannot ask her to help me fix them. I know Bill is clever and charming, he will find a way to avoid most of the holes. What I am worried about is, that he manages to create a mess himself, something nobody could have anticipated. Peia's feelings and her reactions can be unpredictable at times and if he messes up, his only chance will be gone. He will not even have the hope left, that maybe, one day... I cannot come over from Romania on short notice to sort everything out, so, if he doesn't know what to do any more, tell him to remember how I found out about everything. If that does not convince her, nothing will."

Swallowing heavily, Bill nodded, "I understand. I will think about it. Does Mum...?"

His father's eyes flickered over to his mother, who was by now berating Ron for something he had said or done. "Your mother knows nothing and I intend to keep it that way. If she ever finds out about it and realizes I knew about it... This will stay between us."

"Thanks, Dad."

Now he had a plan. All that was left to do was find the courage to go through with it - and convince Peia to come with him. Piece of cake, right?

* * *

I hope Bill didn't seem too sappy. For me, as a girl, it is a bit difficult to write a guy's point of view and possible sources were not very forthcoming with information...

Anyway, tell me what you think and, if you have questions, do not hesitate to ask, either via review or PM. I always try to answer them as soon as possible.


	18. A long overdue confession

You guys are awesome! You really spoil me with all those reviews!

* * *

The Curse Breaker led Cassiopeia inside the house, up the narrow stair case and inside a room, that she immediately identified as the one he and Charlie had lived in as children. The drawings of dragons on one side of the room were a dead giveaway. No other Weasley was such an avid dragon fan as Charlie. The wall on the other side was plain, except for a bookshelf with a few books and a picture of the Weasley family in front of a pyramid on it. The desk at the wall opposite of the witch was completely bare but the view over the countryside from the window behind it was beautiful. There was not a single house in sight, only vast meadows and fields.

She looked through the room again but nothing gave her any indication, why Bill had taken her here. Why was it so important to have this conversation here? There were enough rooms at Grimmauld Place and both of them knew how to make sure everything, that was said, stayed in the room.

Bill closed the door behind them and went over to the bed Cassiopeia guessed to be his. He lifted a loose board of the floor beneath the bed and pulled out a small box, which he handed the witch.

"Open it."

Cassiopeia gave him a skeptical look but complied. Inside the box were a couple of nondescript looking books. The witch turned them around, looking for a title and wondering, when she only saw numbers on them. "What -?"

"The one with the number seven on it. Read it."

Taking the book out of the box and opening it, Cassiopeia was surprised by what she read on the first page.

_Diary of William Arthur Weasley, year seven._

She looked up at the Curse Breaker, who was nervously staring at the book in her hand.

"Please, just read it, before I start rethinking my actions," he asked her.

Cassiopeia sat down on his bed, astonished that he would offer her such an intimate insight into his thoughts and a bit confused what his seventh year at Hogwarts had to do with everything.

"Once you are done reading, I will answer any other questions you might have."

It was strange to read the diary but there were some entries, that stuck out to the witch immediately.

* * *

_Thursday, September 1__st__ 1988_

_I cannot believe that this was the last time I went to Hogwarts with the Hogwarts Express. The time flies by and now I am already in my seventh year. I still remember how nervous I was, when I entered the train for the first time and now, I guess I will really miss it._

_As Head Boy, I had to organize the meeting of the Prefects and the schedule for the patrols. Usually, those meetings are terrible. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins bicker the whole time, the Ravenclaws want to make sure nothing overlaps with their study groups and the Hufflepuffs try to make everybody happy. It was horrible while I was a Prefect and I really thought it would be even worse when I am the one, that has to bring order to this chaos. I was right, the meeting was terrible and yet, I was __so__ wrong._

_A couple of fourth year students decided it would be funny to throw dung bombs in the corridor, right in front of the Prefects' compartment. We caught them, though and Professor McGonagall handed out detentions as soon as those three set foot into Hogwarts. Our Head of House can really be scary sometimes and I am happy that the first-years were still out on the lake, otherwise they might have been too afraid to enter her class._

_I can't really say I feel sorry for the culprits, though. The smell in our compartment was terrible and Julie Bole, the Slytherin Prefect from my year kept complaining about it. You cannot believe how happy I am, that she was not made Head Girl. I don't even know why she things this high pitched voice would be attractive to anybody.  
We were all annoyed by the smell - except Charlie, his nose seems to be immune to this stench - but Bole managed to infuriate everyone, including her fellow Slytherins. _

_That was actually the first time I noticed her. I still cannot believe I never took note of her before. She is a sixth year Prefect, so she must have been there last year as well. She was sitting in the corner of the Slytherin quarter of the compartment, a bit aside of her housemates and her fingers were twirling one of her curls. At first, she didn't seem to care about anything Bole said but it turned into annoyance very quickly. You couldn't really see it in her face __but ... I don't know, I just felt how annoyed she was__. Anyway, all it took was one sentence from her and Bole shut up. It was amazing, even the teachers sometimes have problems to get her to shut up, once she starts complaining._

_The rest of the meeting went without a hitch but I kept being distracted by her. I think she noticed me staring once, because she gave me a curious look. _

_I checked her name on the Prefect list after the meeting was over. Cassiopeia Black. No wonder Bole shut up when she told her so. In Slytherin hierarchy, that girl must be __very__ close to the top._

_I should be shocked, after all, she is the sister of a renown mass murderer and her cousin tortured two people into insanity. But, __I don't know why__ she fascinates me._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Monday, October 17__th__ 1988_

_We had a meeting with the Prefects, today. Considering how many second and third years were caught out of bed lately, we desperately needed to do something about it. I'm happy Percy's such a bookworm and I never had to give him detention. Mum would have been furious at him, if I told her about it and furious with me if I didn't and she found out anyway - which she always does. I still haven't figured out how she manages that. I should focus on finding out, though. My siblings would worship me, if I could tell them how to keep things from Mum. I could make a deal with the twins..._

_Cassiopeia arrived at the meeting late. I had been wondering where she was, since the Slytherins are usually on time and all of her housemates were already there.  
Now I can understand even less, how I never took notice of here, before. She is one of the Slytherin Chasers and, from what I could make out of the comments of her housemate, she has been for a while. She came to the meeting, completely drenched, with her broom still in her hand. She actually apologized for being late and I have never heard a Slytherin use the word sorry before. I hope I didn't sit there with my mouth open. _

_Perhaps I should ask Charlie what he knows about her._

_..._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Sunday, Novermber 20__th__ 1988_

_Quidditch season started today. I actually didn't want to go, since I still have to write that essay for Professor McGonagall she's been bugging us about all week but Charlie convinced me. Gryffindor wasn't even playing but he wanted to check out the opponent._

_I've never been more happy about Charlie's Quidditch obsession than I was today._

_Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin._

_Obviously, Slytherin slaughtered the poor Hufflepuffs. They really didn't stand a chance and no one had really expected them to do so. Charlie kept commenting about how the snakes more than just toed the rules but mostly got away unpunished. I guess that comes with being a Slytherin, knowing when you can cross the line because the referee isn't looking. The only one that was playing fair was Cassiopeia. But she didn't need to use any dirty tricks. She scored eight goals on her own._

_When the Slytherin seeker finally caught the snitch, that girl almost gave me a heart attack. Me and probably everybody, that was watching.  
She stood up on her broom, about thirty feet above the ground and landed next to the rest of her team like that. Next time somebody says Gryffindors are too reckless, I'll tell them to take a look at the Slytherins.  
When my heart finally stopped pounding like mad, I heard Charlie say "Bloody Merlin, that girl can fly!"  
I guess he is right but I would prefer it, if she never did that again. What if she falls off the broom?_

_..._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Monday, January 9__th __1989_

_We were talking up in our dormitory earlier and Henry was making jokes about all of the girls, that seem to be crushing on me. Paul then asked, why I haven't been dating any of them, lately. I mumbled something about being busy with schoolwork and they seemed to buy it, since they started to talk about some Ravenclaw girl._

_I hadn't even realized but I didn't have a single date since the beginning of the school year. That's the longest time I've gone without dating since, well, since I started dating. I have been so distracted watching Cassiopeia, I didn't even take notice of any other girl. That was, when I decided I needed to do something about it. Even if my chances as the child of a blood traitor family are small, I have to try.  
_

_I tweaked the patrol schedule a bit, so we will be paired together next week. I hope I can get to know her a bit and, at the end of the week, ask her out. If she says no, nobody will be around to hear it and I can always blame it on some kind of dare._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Friday, January 20__th__ 1989_

_The patrols with Cassiopeia are going quite well. She's very reserved but if you find a topic, that interests her, she will talk. She doesn't say too many things about her personal life but I think we are getting there._

_Now I really need to get ready for the patrol. She does not like waiting at all._

_Addendum:_

_I just have the worst luck of all people. When I was getting ready for my patrol, I heard the others tease Michael about the crush he had on a girl, who was dating the Slytherin Quidditch captain._

_I didn't really pay attention to what the others were saying, until I heard Paul say "I mean, everybody can see that Black girl is hot. Even the Ravenclaws stare at her over their books but, look at you, Mike, you're a Muggleborn and a Gryffindor. You would stand no chance, even if she was not dating Mulciber."_

_Cassiopeia seemed to be a bit confused why I didn't initiate a conversation today but she simply kept quiet and handled the lonely wayward third-year we met on her own._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Saturday, February 4__th__ 1989_

_I saw Cassiopeia in Hogsmeade today. I had decided to ask Sophia out, since everybody kept asking me why I didn't date anymore.  
Sophia, being the Ravenclaw she is, needed to pick up a book, so I accompanied her. _

_Cassiopeia was standing in the section for Ancient Runes, comparing rune dictionaries.  
I actually talked to her again today. It took me a while to work up the courage but I told her that Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms is the best book for sixth year Ancient Runes.  
Now that I think back, it was probably the most stupid thing I could have said. I mean, isn't that so cliche? A guy wants to approach a girl but doesn't know how, so he talks about something she is currently holding or looking at. It's a wonder she answered at all.  
She smiled at what I said and told me she was looking for a book, that would help one of her year mates not to fail Runes but she totally agrees with me on Magical Hieroglyphs. Apparently, translating the old Egyptian texts is, what she likes best in Runes. She told me she wants to go see the old tombs herself one day. I suggested she should go into curse breaking, since a lot of Curse Breakers are needed in Egypt at the moment.  
Maybe it was a bit selfish but I hoped there would be a chance for us to work together in the future. Unfortunately, she said she already had something else in mind. I wonder what it is..._

_I saw her again, later in the Three Broomsticks with a couple of Slytherins from her year. I never did see Mulciber, though. Perhaps they had a row?_

_..._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Monday, March 5__th__ 1989_

_I've seen Charlie talk to Cassiopeia again. Ever since they patrolled the corridors together two weeks ago I see them talking in quiet corners. I asked him about it but he wouldn't tell me anything. He actually told me to keep my nose out of his business!_

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Tuesday, March 21__st__ 1989_

_Charlie's been talking to her again. I wish I could stop being jealous of my own brother. Thinking of her with someone like Mulciber hurts but thinking of her with my brother... _

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Monday, March 27__th__ 1989_

_I have never been so embarrassed in all of my life! _

_Charlie actually found my diary yesterday and read a few pages.  
I've put the strongest charms I know on the book now, so this will __never__ happen again but the damage's been done already. I guess I can call myself lucky it wasn't the twins, who found it, or, worse, Mum.  
Of course, one of the entries Charlie read was about Cassiopeia. I know why I kept my feelings secret and never talked to him or anybody else about them._

_The good thing is, now I know Charlie is neither dating her secretly or having a crush on her. Well, I guess he's having a crush on her Quidditch skills but they are just friends._

_The bad thing is, he knows a lot about her and told me. It doesn't sound so bad at first but knowing she has so many endearing quirks makes her just so much more lovable._

_The worst thing is, Charlie also thinks she is dating Mulciber. He never specifically asked her but she never complained about the rumors to him._

_Still, I think it is cute, that she eats the crust of her pie first and only then the filling, because she wants to save the best for last. Or the weird system she has for sorting her notes. She doesn't sort them by school subject but by topic. I wonder how she manages to study with that but, according to Charlie, she has excellent grades. My dear brother also told me she has a habit of misplacing her wand amongst her notes and books, when she is studying in the library.  
I also found out, that she was the one, that suggested Charlie to help Hagrid, so he could work with the magical creatures he loves so much. They are no dragons but it seems to be good enough for him. I never thought a Slytherin would help one of us Gryffindors just because, especially if they comes from a blood-traitor family._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Wednesday, April 19__th__ 1989_

_I've found myself studying Cassiopeia more and more while I'm in the library. Technically, I should concentrate on my own studies, since the N.E.W.T.s are coming closer but I can't help it. Charlie was right, she does misplace her wand. I had to restrain myself from chuckling while I was watching her search for it. She is so cute when she frowns._

_I really need to concentrate on studying now. _

_... _

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Tuesday, May 9__th__ 1989_

_Cassiopeia wasn't at breakfast today and when I saw her during lunch, she seemed pale and distracted. It almost looked as if she had cried.  
I caught Charlie in a corridor and asked him if she was alright. It took me a while but he finally told me her brother had died ten years ago. I cannot imagine how it must feel to lose a brother. Just thinking about Charlie being gone, or one of the twins or Ginny... I don't want to imagine losing any of them. No wonder she looked so down. I asked Charlie if there was anything I could do but he said staying away is the best thing any of us can do for her right now.  
I wish I could help somehow._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Sunday, May 21__st__ 1989_

_Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup. Charlie actually caught the snitch but the snakes were too far ahead. He doesn't seem to be too sad, though. Cassiopeia talked to him after the game and I saw them laughing together. She looks so beautiful when she laughs, though she rarely does so while on the ground._

_After they had won the game and the Cup, she did her stunts again. I swear they get crazier every time. It's a wonder she hasn't broken anything yet. Still, everybody seemed to be waiting for it, once the snitch had been caught.  
What she did today was amazing. I even saw a few Gryffindors cheer her on. She was flying close to the stands this time, so we could watch her up close. The control that girl has over her body is incredible._

* * *

oOo

* * *

_Friday, June 16__th__ 1989_

_This is it. I am leaving Hogwarts for the last time. I am looking forward to start my training as Curse Breaker. There are so many things out there, waiting to be found. I still don't know where they are going to send me. South America? China? I personally hope, it is Egypt. Perhaps one day, I can show Cassiopeia the country and all of its treasures._

_I know I am dreaming, when I am think about things like that. It is unlikely that I will ever see her again. I guess I will have to live with the fact, that the last time I saw her was earlier, when we said goodbye to the Prefects. At least I will have the smile she gave me to treasure for a while._

* * *

Cassiopeia stared at the diary. She could hardly believe what she had read. It had taken her the bigger part of the hour she had agreed to give Bill to study every entry in the small grey book and she was a fast reader.

The very first entry had had her hooked. She could remember several of the instances Bill had written about but she had never really noticed his attention on her. Others, like the scene in the bookstore, she had completely forgotten about. It had not seemed too important at that time.

Why had Charlie never asked her if she was dating Mulciber? He could have saved his brother a lot of heart ache. The witch knew that a relationship with Bill would not have been possible back then, thanks to her mother and she was not sure if she would have wanted it. Most of what she had known about Bill had been told to her by Charlie at some point. She and Bill had not talked too much during the Prefects' meetings and there had been many rumors about him, even in the Slytherin dorms. She had been focused on becoming a Hit Witch and getting rid of the darkness her family name was associated with, anyway. Everybody knew that job was a relationship killer, especially during the first few years.  
Still, reading how Bill had soaked up any information he could get about her and watched her from afar was strange. Elating. Perhaps a bit frightening.

At least, now she knew Bill's behavior the last few weeks had been real... or hadn't it? Perhaps his feelings had changed over the years. Six years was a long time, after all.

She looked up at Bill, who had sat on Charlie's bed since she had started reading, not moving even the slightest bit. The Curse Breaker swallowed heavily when he saw her look at him and took a deep breath, before asking, "Do you understand now?"

Cassiopeia shook her head. Right now, she understood even less than before. She had no idea how the pieces he gave her were supposed to fit together.  
If he still felt that way, why did he flirt with that French witch? If he didn't, why did he show her all of this? Was this his way of telling her she was six years too late? That it would have been possible once but he had moved on now?

Bill ran his fingers through his hair, absentmindedly pulling out the hair tie. Then he sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you show me all of this? Why did you ask me to pretend to be your girlfriend? Why -"

The Curse Breaker snorted. "Why did I show you all of this? Because this is the only way you will ever be able to understand how I feel. I have waited far too long to tell you. If I told you earlier, we wouldn't be in this mess at all. The whole charade with pretending to be a couple was actually Charlie's idea. He thought I could charm you enough to convince you to date me for real. Well, we've seen how well that worked..."

"Wait. The whole thing was Charlie's idea? No wonder the plan had so many holes. I always had to think everything through for him," Cassiopeia interjected, shaking her head, before realizing she had interrupted his explanation. "Sorry, go on."

"I thought we were actually making progress. In the Entrance Hall, before the first meeting of the Order, you were flirting back and then you were biting your lip and you looked so... I just had to try. If it had been anybody but my Mum interrupting, I would have cursed them. I was so close to doing something I have wanted to do for six years now..."

Bill got up from the other bed and went over to the witch, kneeling down in front of her.

"You weren't saying anything afterwards and then nobody saw you for a week. I was beginning to think you were staying away because of me. When you came back, you were a lot more open to physical contact and I noticed how difficult that is for you with people you don't know very well. Then you told me about your brother. I know it took Charlie months to make you tell him anything about either of them and what you told him were insignificant nothings. But for me you actually volunteered a very personal story about your brother. I had planned to have a nice lunch with you, after we were done buying the books. Then I would have gotten us some ice-cream and apparated us to a beautiful park on the outskirts of London, like a real date. If everything went right, I may have tried to kiss you again and asked you, if you would like to try out a real relationship... but I messed up."

All of the information was too much for Cassiopeia. She didn't know what to feel or think anymore. How was she supposed to react? Should she tell him everything was fine again and that she wanted to date for real? Was that what people usually did in situations like this? Was that what she wanted? But he had yet to explain about the flirting with Fleur. The witch had not missed the fact, that he was skirting around the subject.

"That still does not explain the flirting with that French witch," she told Bill.

"I know and you have to believe that I am terribly sorry about that. I thought I had made it clear enough to everybody that we were dating and that Fleur really needed help. Looking back, it should have been obvious to me. There have been enough girls flirting with me in the past. I should have seen the signs but, somehow, I guess just chalked it up to her being French. I didn't mean to agree on a date with her, when I said having dinner was alright. I told her that after you left."

Cassiopeia stared at the floor in front of her. So it had been a misunderstanding after all. He hadn't meant to flirt with the other witch. But, was that enough for her? The last few days had shown her how much feelings could mess up your routine. How much they forced you to change. How much they could hurt you. Was that really what she wanted?

"Your hour is up," she remarked absentmindedly.

"I know. I just want you to know that I never meant to hurt you. I always just wanted to make you smile. I...I.. Merlin! This is even more difficult than I thought," the Curse Breaker took a deep breath, "I really... like you."

He got up from the floor and made his way over to the door. "I said everything I wanted to. You know all of the facts and the decision is yours to make. I'll be downstairs, so you can think in peace. Take all the time you need."

The witch heard the door fall shut behind Bill, as he left her to make a decision. For a while, she just sat there, staring at the pictures of dragons on the opposite wall. The Curse Breaker had more or less stripped his soul bare in front of her, leaving her to judge about what she saw. Cassiopeia realized it was a gift of immeasurable value and that it must have cost Bill quite some effort to do that. She did not think she would ever be able to share so much with anybody. There were just too many edges to her character, that she would prefer to keep hidden.

Still, the Curse Breaker made her feel like no other before him. Being around him made her happy, made her feel safe, wanted, ... loved. Just seeing Bill smile made her glad. Was this truly love? Was this all that was needed or was she missing a vital piece? She did not know.

How could this ever be fair to Bill? He would give everything of himself but maybe he would only get part of her back in return. Shouldn't love make them equal?  
Cassiopeia pulled on her hair in annoyance. What should she listen to, her head or her heart? Which decision would she regret more?

Taking a deep breath, she got up. There was no use in sitting up here and over thinking everything. Bill was downstairs, probably anxiously waiting for her to make a decision. First, he had to suffer through showing his innermost thoughts and now this. It was time to put him out of his misery. At least, he deserved an answer.

* * *

She found Bill in the small living room of the Burrow. He had lit up the fireplace and was staring into the flames. For a moment, Cassiopeia watched his hair gleam in the light of the fire, then she made herself know. "Bill? I have made a decision."

The Curse Breaker looked up at her, his expression turning sad, when he noticed the witch's determined look. "It's alright. I understand."

Cassiopeia glared at him. "I haven't even said anything yet. Don't jump to conclusions!"

Bill just gave a meek nod, which annoyed the witch even more. Was she really that scary?

Before she could lose her nerves, Cassiopeia began to speak, "Alright. There are several things you have to know. You already know about my family, so I will not have to explain why it is difficult for me to understand and express feelings. You know I am a Hit Witch. After the year at Hogwarts, I _will_ go back to the _Office_. The job is dangerous and could have me killed any day and if I don't die or get hurt, I work crazy hours. Even though I disagree with many of their points of view, I _am_ a Black and a Slytherin and nothing will ever change that."

The witch paused for a moment, silently preparing herself for the difficult part of her speech, "You told me how you feel and, judging by your diary, what you said was the truth. I on the other side, am not sure how I feel about you, because I have nothing to compare it to. I know I like being around you. You make me happy but I don't know if that's enough. The question is, do you really want to have a relationship with an inexperienced witch, who may never be able to truly express all of her feelings, whose family is feared and despised by the majority of the magical community and who could die any day. I am willing to try, are you?"

Although she looked to be calm and composed, the witch was inwardly shaking. She was afraid of his reaction. What if he did change his mind? Now that she had made up hers, she had given him an opening to truly hurt her.  
But one look at Bill's face blew all of her worries away. He smiled, a true and honest smile and his eyes were shining with happiness.

"Do you really have to ask that? I knew about all of the things you just told me. Why would I change my mind? I wanted to date you when I still thought your brother was a crazy mass murderer and I didn't know if you weren't just as crazy," the Curse Breaker answered.

"Good. But I have to warn you. If something like that scene in the café ever happens again, you will get first-hand knowledge why the whole _DMLE_ avoids me whenever something annoyed me."

Bill chuckled. "That's alright."

"And, just for your information, Bella is the only one in the family, who truly is insane."

"If you say so," the Curse Breaker answered nonchalantly and Cassiopeia glared at him, until he cracked up. Then, he finally got up from the couch he was sitting on and went over to the witch, "Since nobody is around to interrupt us this time... would you mind, if I kissed you?"

Cassiopeia stepped closer. She did not mind at all and was rather looking forward to it. Raising her head, she smiled at the Curse Breaker and he took that as cue to continue and bowed his head down. Pulling the witch even closer with one arm, he connected their lips for the first time.

As her eyes fell shut, Cassiopeia wondered about the feeling of the kiss. She had not known what to expect and had been a bit afraid of not being able to keep up but - for now - it was a chaste kiss. Unsure what to do with her hands, she put them on the Curse Breaker's chest.  
Noticing that Bill let her do whatever she wanted to, the witch relaxed a bit, while he stroke her neck with his thumb. When he sensed, that the witch had calmed, the wizard slowly deepened the kiss, giving her the time to study his actions and learn.  
They stood there for a while, kissing and enjoying the feeling of the other being there.  
Bill was the one to break the kiss, slowly pulling back and resting his forehead against Cassiopeia's.

Taking a deep breath, Cassiopeia opened her eyes and found Bill's blue ones looking down at her. She smiled at him, not sure if she was able to form a coherent thought yet.  
Unbidden, Charlie's letter came to her mind. His statement about his brother's 'snogging prowess' seemed to be true. Although she had nothing to compare it to, she was sure nothing would ever compare anyway.  
For a moment, she played with the thought of informing the Dragon Tamer about that in her next letter - just to annoy him.  
Her giggling made Bill curious. "What's so funny?"

"I just thought about something Charlie wrote in his latest letter," Cassiopeia explained.

"I am doing something wrong, if you are thinking about my brother right now," he said with a pout.

The witch laughed. "Remind me to let you read the letter sometime later. What he wrote makes a lot more sense to me now. Perhaps you can help me decide whether he deserves some kind of punishment or a reward for helping you."

"Fine, but it will have to wait until tomorrow."

With that, Bill went back to kissing her and Cassiopeia did forget about letters, Charlie and other curious - and perhaps worried - siblings for the moment.

* * *

I hope you liked the chapter. The idea for it actually came, when I thought about writing a background story about Cassiopeia's time at Hogwarts and realizing I don't have the time to write a complete story. Perhaps once I finished this story...

Sadly, there will be no updates for at least the next week, possibly even the next two weeks, since there is far too much work piling on my desk. It's really terrible and I do not want to give you a half-baked chapter simply for the sake of updating.


	19. Worried family

Ok, first things first. I am terribly sorry for not updating! I was working on my thesis and needed one last experiment to get enough date to figure out if the changes were significant and - of course - nothing worked like I wanted it to. That's Science for you..  
Since I had a deadline coming up, I spent almost all of my time working on that problem and no time writing HWHH. Once again, I'm really sorry for the long wait and I hope I'll be able to update more regularly again.

* * *

Cassiopeia woke, feeling well-rested, warm and safe. It confused her, since usually she only felt one of them - and it was rarely the latter.

What puzzled her even more was, that she found her pillow to be moving slightly. The witch blinked a couple of times, adjusting her eyes to the dim light, before she could study her surroundings. Bill was still sleeping peacefully on the old couch in the Burrow's living room and she was laying halfway between him and the backrest, halfway on top of him.  
Trying to move without waking up the Curse Breaker, she noticed his arm around her waist, preventing her from leaving.  
Since there was little else to do, she busied herself with watching her boyfriend.

The word sounded strange in her mind but she could not think of a better term. Perhaps it wasn't the word itself, that was strange but the feeling to have it associated with herself. Time would tell whether she could get used to it or not.

Cassiopeia made herself more comfortable on the Curse Breaker's chest and thought of the day ahead of them. Sooner or later, they would have to return to Grimmauld Place. Sirius, the Weasleys and everybody else were probably worrying about what had happened. For all they knew, she could have cursed Bill six ways to Sunday and simply left without looking back. The chances of that happening had not been so slim - after all, she had been quite angry with Bill.  
She did not look forward to explaining everything to Bill's mother, though. They should probably decide on a story they could tell everybody, before they left the Burrow. Perhaps they should simply say it was a misunderstanding. That was, what it had initially been after all. They could leave out the rest and safe themselves a lot of embarrassment. Besides, she had been raised to keep her private life as, well, private as possible. It was a potential source of weakness after all and a Black _never_ appears weak.

"Stop thinking. I can't sleep when you're thinking so loud," Bill said sleepily, his brows furrowing slightly.

"It's almost seven. Your mother told me you were an early riser," Cassiopeia chuckled, "Seems like she was wrong."

Bill grumbled something unintelligible.

The smile on the witch's face grew. "I'm sorry, I did not understand a word. Can you repeat that without mumbling into my hair?"

"I said it's Sunday, the sun is already shining and I am comfortable. There is no reason to get up. Go back to sleep," Bill repeated with a sigh.

"Shouldn't a shining sun be a reason to get up and not to stay in bed?"

"No. If there's no sunrise to watch, it's not interesting," Bill mumbled, pulling the witch closer and burying his head in her hair once more.

"What's the deal with the sunrise?" the witch asked, decidedly not giving him a chance to doze off. This was far to interesting for her to let it slide.

"Desert sunrises are spectacular, as is the night sky. You get used to watching them. It's calming and you can think in peace," the Curse Breaker explained after a while, seemingly having given up on going back to sleep. He sat up a little, resting his back against the armrest and pulling the witch up with him. Cassiopeia let him do so without complaint. Cuddling with Bill felt far more natural than any other close physical contact she had had with others. The witch marveled at how much the past few weeks had changed her. Where once had been an overworked, snarky and deadly witch, who tried to avoid all contact besides the professional work relationship with her colleagues and her boss was now a... well, she was still deadly - and probably snarky - but she was far more relaxed and actually had people she really cared about. A couple of weeks ago, this realization would have scared her, now it just made her happy.

"I used to watch the night sky during my first months in Egypt. It's easy to see the stars there and I used to search for the Cassiopeia."

The witch looked up at the Curse Breaker. It made her sad to know he had been miserable because of her.  
Bill gave her a kiss on the forehead. "It helped. It calmed me and sometimes it gave me ideas on how to break a curse or a ward."

Snuggling into his chest, Cassiopeia asked, "What are we going to do today?"

"I thought you already had a plan, since you insisted on keeping me awake."

A noise had Cassiopeia jump up, flickering her wrist to draw her wand out of its holster. In this moment, she realized they were at the Burrow, where there were no wards protecting them. Any witch or wizard could come here at any time. They had slept completely unprotected, vulnerable to any kind of attack - something she had not done in years. It was also something, that was not recommendable doing while a Dark Lord was rising once more and his followers quite possibly out to get you.  
Bill got up as well, looking for his wand, which lay on a small table nearby but the witch pushed him behind her back, her own wand pointed at the door. Dueling in this confined space would be easier without Bill getting in her way.  
They waited, listening for any telltale sounds.

There were steps outside in the corridor and Cassiopeia slowly moved towards them. It sounded like two, certainly not more than three people. They were trying to be quiet but the old panels on the floor creaked under their weight. The witch waited silently, all senses on alert. She needed the right moment for opening the door, so the intruders would be surprised and she might have an advantage. Not knowing her opponents and having to keep an eye on Bill to make sure he was save made her even more careful than usually. Had it been one of her colleagues with her, they would have acted already, having practiced scenarios like this more than a dozen times.  
The witch took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for a possible duel with opponents of unknown strength. Then she grabbed the door handle - and paused, suddenly hearing voices.

"Molly, let's wait a little longer. I am sure they will come back on their own. Perhaps they were simply too tired to return to Grimmauld Place," Arthur Weasley sounded exasperated, as if this wasn't the first time he had said that today.

"But she was so angry with Bill... I need to know if my son's alright - and if they made up. It would be such a pity, if they broke up. She's the first girl he ever had the courage to bring home with him and they look good together. Cassiopeia is such a nice and clever girl, even though she's a Slytherin. Just look at how close friends she is with Charlie. Now that she's given up that dangerous job and is teaching at Hogwarts instead..."

"Molly, maybe the two of them just want to be alone for a bit and make up without everybody poking their noses into their business. We shouldn't just barge in. Or maybe Bill just wants to be left alone for a while. We should give him some space anyway. Our son is old enough to decide how he wants to handle this."

"But Arthur! What if Bill's sitting somewhere miserable and heartbroken? I need to know if my son's alright. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't check on my son in a situation like this?"

Shaking her head slightly, Cassiopeia lowered her wand. Bill, who had remained close to the couch gave her a questioning look. By now, he had picked up his wand and the witch noted they had to get him a wand holster as soon as possible. Having to search for your wand while strangers entered your house was dangerous and with a Dark Lord around, it could be lethal.

"Your parents," she mouthed at Bill.

The Curse Breaker's eyes widened as he looked around, seemingly searching for something, though the witch had no idea what in Salazar's name he could be looking for. Bill motioned for her to follow him, as he went to the window. "Let's go! They'll hear us, if we disapparate. We have to use the window and put some space between us and the house."

Cassiopeia stared at him incredulously. He was not honestly planning what she thought he did, was he?

"I don't want to explain anything to Mum right now. We can do that in the evening, after dinner. She'll be easier to handle then. Let's spent the day somewhere else," he said, opening the window and hopping onto the window sill.

"Won't they worry even more, if they cannot find you anywhere?" Cassiopeia asked, her eyes moving between the window and the door.

Bill jumped onto the lawn outside the window and held out his hand to help the witch. "I'm old enough to look after myself and Dad will manage to calm her somehow. If not, Ginny and the twins know how to distract her. Now come on. Where is your sense for adventure?"

"I think you are forgetting I'm a Slytherin. We like to plan things first, you know, like, think about what we want to achieve and any problems we could encounter on the way..." Cassiopeia grumbled but climbed out of the window anyway, pointedly ignoring Bill's outstretched hand. This was not the first time she left a house through a window - though, luckily, this time said window was on the ground floor. Last time, it had been on the first floor and she had jumped out full speed to tackle a suspect, before he could manage to disapparate. The landing had not been too pleasant for her - and even less pleasant for the wizard she had landed on. "It's a good thing I befriended Charlie at school and not you. I have a feeling that you would have managed to get us into trouble even I couldn't have talked us out of."

"Don't worry. I would have gotten us out anyway. Do you really think Dumbledore would have given the studious Gryffindor Head Boy detention? As long as nobody was permanently harmed, he would have laughed, offered us a lemon drop and sent us back to class," Bill answered with a carefree smile.

Cassiopeia grumbled about Gryffindors getting preferential treatment good-naturedly, silently thinking they needed it, otherwise none of them would manage to get into seventh year. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws rarely, if ever, broke the rules and the Slytherins were far too cunning to get caught - unless one of their own ratted them out, of course. Gryffindors on the other hand were notorious rule breakers, whether it was for fun or for a good cause and - unfortunately for them - often got caught in their rush.

She jumped from the window sill and, while landing on the ground, could barely managed to suppress a pained hiss, as she felt the cursed wound rip open once more. The Curse Breaker noticed her tense up and grabbed her arm to steady her. "Is everything alright?"

The witch pressed a hand over her side, noticing how her shirt was getting wet. "Depends on what you call 'alright'. I guess we'll net to make a short stop at my flat. I can't walk around with a bloodied t-shirt, people will stare," she said, quickly pulling him away from the house. Once they were out of earshot, they disapparated.

* * *

Cassiopeia had brought them right into the middle of her living room. She could see Bill's surprise and his - not very inconspicuous - surveying of his surroundings before he returned his attention onto her. He carefully pushed her shirt up and inspected the wound. The witch peered over his hands and grumbled, when she saw how it was oozing red liquid.

"It's quite a mess. The original spell would have been more or less harmless - at least for someone with my bloodline - but the healing spells interfere," she explained and proceeded to tell the Curse Breaker everything Snape had told her before. If someone might be able to sort this out, it would be Bill after all. The way he had handled all of the cursed objects at Grimmauld Place had been brilliant and she knew he had encountered far more sinister spells.

Once she had finished he wizard raked a hand through his hair, messing up his ponytail even further and motioned for her to sit down on the couch. "Well, that's certainly not how I like to start my day. I hope you won't get hit by curses and allow other people to mess them up regularly. I'll have to take a closer look at that."

Cassiopeia sat down immediately, waiting for further instructions. Bill carefully pulled up the shirt, cursing when he notices that this left him with only one hand to examine the wound, when he clearly needed two hands to do so. He bit his lip, seemingly trying to decide how to continue.

"Would you mind taking off your shirt? You could also hold it up if you prefer that but it may take a while, so it might get uncomfortable for you," he finally said.

"You have no idea what uncomfortable means in my job," the witch snorted. "You try being crouched in a damp, hollow tree trunk for hours, waiting if the suspect passes you. And the emphasis is on _if _here. Or try being on a broom during a thunderstorm for a couple of hours. Now _that_ is, what I call uncomfortable. I couldn't feel most of my body anymore after that."

While she was talking, she was trying to figure out quickly, if she was comfortable with taking off her shirt. Usually, she wasn't very prude. Living in a dorm and being on the Quidditch team, there had been enough people, that had seen her in various stages of undress. Had it been anybody but Bill, a Healer for example, she wouldn't have hesitated, since it did make their work easier. With Bill however, being willing to take off the shirt could have a quite different meaning. This was not a simple, clinical Healer - patient setting, there was a lot more behind it. Taking off her shirt would make her vulnerable to his judgment and she couldn't help but be scared of that.  
Still, she had agreed to trying the relationship and she trusted Bill. It wasn't as if he was asking her to give him her wand, because that was something where she really drew a line. Never, ever be defenseless, that was the first thing one was taught after being accepted into the _Hit Wizard Office _and, by now, she already lived subconsciously by that rule. Taking of her shirt would be no danger to her physical wellbeing and her mental... This was Bill she was thinking about, bloody Merlin! He wouldn't hurt her, at least not on purpose.  
Determined, she grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it off. Bill eyes widened a fraction in surprise, when he realized what she had decided to do but his smile was pleased.

Clearing his throat, Bill fixed his gaze on the wound. "Alright, let's see what I can do about this mess."

The Curse Breaker took his time examining the different spells. He slowly and carefully traced his wand over the witch's left side and Cassiopeia could see him bite his tongue in concentration. The wand movements got more complex and Bill began to murmur spells the witch didn't understand. Her skin started to tingle wherever the Curse Breaker's wand touched it. The sensation got stronger and stronger, until it felt like a burn.

A quiet hiss left the witch's lips and Bill mumbled an apology. "Sorry. I'm separating the curse from any other magic in your body. They've intermingled with each other far too long and I guess you can't even feel the difference anymore. I can imagine that it doesn't feel good, when I essentially rip out something you have come to consider a part of you."

Cassiopeia just gritted her teeth and endured the burning, that did not stop for another ten minutes, when Bill pulled back with a sigh. "Snape was right. The curse itself was harmless for you. It dissolved as soon as I had it separated from the healing spells. I hope it didn't leave any lasting damage, considering how long this mess was drawing on your reserves. If it ever bothers you again, or if something like this happens again, you have to tell me immediately."

Nodding in agreement instantly Cassiopeia allowed Bill to finish his task. Making quick work of the remaining spells, the Curse Breaker dropped down on the couch next to the witch, exhausted.

Meanwhile, Cassiopeia marveled at how easy it suddenly was to breath. The injury seemed to have restricted her far more than she had noticed. How much had she really pushed her body, forcing it to work as normal, which was already pushing the limits of a healthy person?

"I couldn't remove all of the spells. Some remnants have intermingled with your own magic and are difficult to make out. I'll try again some other time but, for now, I am too tired," Bill said with a yawn.

"Didn't you just get up? Shouldn't you be more awake?" Cassiopeia teased him, fully aware that what he had done had cost him a lot of energy. Bill looked at her, eyes only half opened.

"Alright, take a nap. I'll make some tea and see if I can find us some breakfast somewhere."

They spent the day just as Bill had planned to do the day before. They had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant - after Bill stopped gapping at the fact that Cassiopeia _Black _actually knew a Muggle restaurant and had gone there somewhat regularly -, gotten some ice-cream and went into the park Bill liked so much. He actually went as far as asking her if she officially wanted to be his girlfriend, just as he said he would have. Cassiopeia fondly shook her head at that, suppressing a giggle but said yes anyway. Sometimes Gryffindors were just... Gryffindors.

* * *

In the evening, they returned to Cassiopeia's flat with some take-out, having decided it was better to face Molly _after_ dinner - just in case she decided to refuse to give them any. Well, according to Bill, she would probably only refuse to give him any of her cooking - which he may or may not deserve in the witch's opinion - leaving his mother worrying about him - but, since she had decided to forgive him, she would take the Chinese food - even if chopsticks were a menace.  
It had actually taken her less than a minute to drop some rice onto her shirt.

"Great. That's the second shirt today. At least I will have plenty material to practice cleaning spells on. They should really start teaching those at Hogwarts, so people won't have to start practicing when they already have to do their own washing," the witch grumbled, trying to brush off the rice and summoning a fresh t-shirt from her closet.

"You still have rice on you," Bill laughed and started to pick the grains off of her with his own chopsticks. Cassiopeia blushed and halfheartedly tried to bat him away.

"Alright, we've established that you are great at using chopsticks and I have absolutely no talent," she said, grabbing the fresh shirt and turning around. She threw the stained one into the general direction of her bedroom, before she felt Bill's arms snaked around her from behind. "There is no need to be shy. I've seen you without a shirt before."

Cassiopeia could feel herself blush even harder. "I know, it's just..."

Actually, she didn't know. Maybe she had turned around to hide. Maybe she did it, because, this time, there was no cursed wound around to justify anything. She could even have left on the stained shirt. The probability of her dropping more food while trying to eat with chopsticks was very high, so that may have been the wisest course of action. But, maybe she was afraid of what this could - one day - lead to.

"Would it help you, if I took off my shirt as well?"

Cassiopeia swallowed. She had caught a glimpse of what Bill was hiding underneath his shirt, after the incident with the rain maker. The sculptured muscles had been impossible to overlook.  
It would probably be very counterproductive if he walked around topless, she decided, feeling her cheeks flush.

"The shirt is all you get for free. The rest has to be earned."

Narrowing her eyes, the witch turned around, ignoring the fact, that she had not put on the shirt yet. He was clever, using her competitive streak against her and her fears. No matter what she was afraid of, being able to win something was enough to make her try. She would have to think of a clever way to get him back.

"And how do I earn such an honor?" she asked, giving him a very calculating look.

Bill grinned, letting go of her, taking off his shirt and throwing it at the witch. "I will think of something."

Cassiopeia caught the shirt midair, laughing, and carelessly threw it into a corner.

Her laughter almost drowned out the soft _plop_, that came from that very same direction.

"You know, I am used to have a lot of things thrown at me when I enter a house unannounced. Pots, vases, curses, that all happens on a regular base but this is the first time I had a shirt thrown at me. You are full of surprises, Black."

The witch froze and for a moment she felt as if her heart had stopped beating. Her body had recognized the voice immediately and suppressed any instinct telling her to draw her wand but that did nothing against the blush that was creeping up her face.

"Gumboil! For Salazar's sake! Use the door for once in your life!"

This had to be the most embarrassing thing, that ever happened to her.

"Interesting. This is something I may have expected coming to Ophelia Haywood's for a surprise visit... and a Weasley of all people. I've seen quite a lot of Weasleys running through the Ministry today. Even more than usual..."

Cassiopeia glowered at her boss. "Alastor! Is there a reason to why you are here?"

Sometimes, she truly wished she could curse him to Antarctica - that was, until he once again proofed to be the best head her office could wish for.  
Gumboils face turned grave. "There is indeed. I'm afraid I have bad news."

"Bad news? Did something happen? Is Denbright alright?" the witch asked, starting to gnaw on her bottom lip. Since Jason Denbright was the only one she knew to be working in a very precarious place, she was immediately concerned about him. Especially, since she was the one who caused him to do this in the first place.

Gumboil put up his hands, signaling for her to calm down. "Not Jason, he's alright. He was the one who told me, about it actually. It's you I'm worried about. Maybe you've heard about-"

A knock on the door had all three of them turn their heads.

"Who in Salazar's name..?" Cassiopeia wondered out loud.

"I thought Denbright, Haywood and I were the only ones, who knew where you live?" Gumboil asked, moving to the door. Cassiopeia drew her wand, so she could counter any attack, as soon as Gumboil opened the door. She mentally reviewed the list of people, that knew her address. Apart from the ones that Gumboil knew about, there were only Dumbledore and Snape and she sincerely doubted that one of them was standing in fromt of her door.

"There are a few others but none of them have any reason to come here. Bill, stay back," she said, motioning for him to take a place out of sight. This was starting to feel like a déjà vu.

"Ready?" At Cassoipeia's nod, the older wizard pulled open the door, coming face to face with a very worried Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was pacing up and down in front of the door.

The Auror stared at the head of the _Hit Wizard Office_ for a moment.

"What are you doing here?" he finally asked, eying Bill's shirt, that the older wizard was still holding in one hand with a raised eyebrow.

"Kingsley? How in Merlin's name did you find out where I live?!"

The Auror's critical gaze wandered over to Cassiopeia, who glared at him, when his eyebrow raised even further at her lack of certain clothes.

"I think Ms Black asked a question, Auror Shacklebolt," Alastor Gumboil said calmly, drawing the wizards attention back to him.

"Is he here, Kingsley?" Mrs. Weasley's worried voice asked from somewhere outside the door, "Is my son here?"

Gumboil looked between Cassiopeia and Bill, who was still hidden out of Kingsley's sight, a questioning look on his face. The witch pinched the bridge of her nose. They really should have contacted the Weasleys earlier.

"I didn't kidnap him, I promise," she told her boss.

"Where is Bill, Peia? Molly is very worried, since she cannot find him anywhere," Kingsley told her with a sigh, "You know, I had expected a quiet Sunday shift, when there were suddenly four Weasleys in my office, asking me if I knew where you lived."

Cassiopeia threw up her hands in surrender.

"Come on in then, all of you. For Salazar's sake, Bill is fine! Bloody Merlin, I told you they would worry!" She added the last piece for Bill.

"I know you did. I never expected them to search for me like this," the Curse Breaker answered, shaking his head.

Having heard her son's voice, Molly Weasley pushed the Auror in front of her aside and entered the flat. Her eyes narrowed as soon as she noticed her son's lack of shirt.  
Cassiopeia wanted to say something but Bill pointedly looked at the shirt in her hand and the witch took the hint, trying to pull in on as quietly as possible while Molly's attention was elsewhere.

"Hey Mum," Bill said, fiddling with the end of his ponytail. He seemed to be preparing himself for another lecture that was sure to come.

"Hey Mum? HEY MUM?! THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? NO SIGN OF YOU FOR A WHOLE DAY! NOT EVEN A NOTE! YOU COULD HAVE SENT AN OWL OR EVEN A PATRONUS! DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE ALL WERE? "

"Mum was worried -"

"- not us", the twins interrupted their mother, before she could truly explode.

"Cool flat. Not much -"

"- one for interior design -"

"- are you?" the twins asked, taking a look around and the witch gave them a lopsided smile, waiting for everybody else to enter her flat.

Cassiopeia's living room suddenly seemed very crowded. Never before had here been so many people in it, and they had to conjure additional chairs. The twins were still busy gazing around, trying to find any interesting personal belongings, while Kingsley and Arthur seemed to be uncomfortable just being there. Alastor Gumboil looked halfway interested in the background story, halfway twitchy - probably because he did not want to tell Cassiopeia what had happened around so many strangers.

"Look, Mum, I can explain but can we please not do this here?" Bill asked, giving his mother his best puppy dog look. Molly seemed to crumble for a minute before resolutely shaking her head.

"No. I want an explanation right now."

Cassiopeia pinched the bridge of her nose once more. Of all the ways she had imagined this very scene in the previous hours, none of them had included her very twitchy boss sitting next to her.

"Alright," Bill sighed. "Well-"

"It was a misunderstanding, we clarified it, problem solved," Cassiopeia interrupted him, her eyes wandering to Gumboil.

"If it was only a misunderstanding, why didn't you come back and tell us? You could have saved us all a lot of worrying!"

"Molly, I promise I will explain it in detail later but I really need to talk to Alastor right now," Cassiopeia said. Gumboils uncharacteristic fiddling was making her nervous.

Molly looked at Gumboil, as if noticing him there for the first time.

"Oh!" She furrowed her eyebrows, studying the wizard closely. "Wasn't he your boss?"

"Come on, Molly. Let's go. We can talk once we're all at home," Arthur said and, with Kingsley's help, dragged his overly curious wife out of the room. Bill gave Cassiopeia a questioning look and, at her unconcerned nod, disapparated with the twins.

"Alright, just spit it out. There's nothing you can say that'll surprise me anymore," she told him, convinced that she was braced for anything.

"Fudge created a new position at Hogwarts. The High Inquisitor. He's supposed to evaluate the classes and decide, whether they are up to the ministries standards, which are quite ridiculous I might add."

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. "Apart from the fact that I am not sure if that is legal, I don't see the problem here."

There was a small pause, before Gumboil answered. "He gave that post to Dolores Umbridge."

The witch stared at him, mouth open, before she managed to form a sentence. "You've got to be kidding me!"

* * *

All comments are appreciated, as I love to hear your opinion. Next we'll move on with Peia's first day at Hogwarts


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